Cursed (Sequel to Possessed)
by Ninalb
Summary: With Zane back in Morro's clutches, now along with Jay, everyone's now racing to get a hand on the realm crystal for their own means. The threat of the Preeminent entering the realm and cursing Ninjago still hangs over all, but right now they're only 3/5 a team. But who comes first? The people who would go to the end of the world with you or the greater good?
1. Chapter 1

Silence. This is what hung in the air of the Bounty and the cell that Zane was sitting in. Two different kinds of silence. The silence of loss and sorrow and the other the silence of being alone. It haunted both like ghosts, reminding them all of an absence of something besides sound. Zane shifted a little, the rattle of chains painfully breaking the silence. The soft pattering of footfalls alerted him that someone was coming. He could guess who was coming down the cavern.

"Happy to see me?" Morro smiled.

Zane knew he should have been screaming, yelling, kicking, doing anything to escape or make it difficult for his captors.

"Zane, don't listen to him, we'll get out here, " he heard Jay whispered behind him.

He knew he should have turned and looked, he knew it wasn't really Jay. But he lifted his head turning hopefully to the sound. He saw Jay, but not really Jay, only an image of him, the rest controlled by an imposter. His reaction earned him harsh laughter, the ghosts finding it hilarious.

"Aren't you so happy that we are going to be together for the rest of eternity?" Morro taunted, floating around him.

"I mean, you and I are so similar," Morro said.

"We are nothing alike," Zane hissed softly.

"Oh, but we are. We're both evil on the inside." Morro replied.

"I am not evil," Zane said.

"I don't know, it seems pretty evil to almost kill your friends. Your family." Morro said.

Zane said nothing, eyes falling back down to the floor.

"Don't look so sad. We're going to rule the world soon. I think you would find it more enjoyable to join me instead of constantly fighting me." Morro said.

"By my calculations, If you think I will ever join you than you are a fool." Zane bitterly replied.

"Oh well." Morro shrugged, "Anyway, we always have Jay to fix you up if you get a little...battle damaged."

"Soul Archer," Soul Archer scowled.

"Ya whatever." Morro dismissed, "Now here, you either take off your gi and put on this green shirt or I'll do it myself."

Zane huffed, watching as one of the guards took that as a yes and moved around his back, pulling out a key. A click resounded and they chains started to loosen. Morro thrust the shirt towards him, and Zane hesitantly took it.

A second passed. Zane threw the shirt into Jay's face and rebounded off of him. Turn on his heels, he bolted, darting the twists and the turns of the cavern. Footsteps and the scream of an arrow resounded from behind him. He ducked throwing a rock at the arrow, which hit it, the arrows sickly green glow spreading all over it.

"P.I.X.A.L., calcula-" Zane cut off remembering that she was still at the Bounty.

With a sharp turn, that made many rocks scrape against his feet with a grinding screech, he changed directions, heading into a different tunnel. He had no idea where he was, or where was the exit. All he knew was that there were 4 angry ghosts on his tail that were going to get him if he didn't do something quick.

A faint green glow from the floor indicated that a ghost was going to pop up shortly. He swerved, turning down a different tunnel.

"Move faster idiots!" He heard Morro growl behind him. Too close behind him.

He glanced behind him to find Morro's transparent green arm reaching out towards him, a satisfied smirk on Morro's face... And then it was flying up above him. He was falling down. Either way, the farther away he was from Morro, the better.

A sharp impact right between his lower shoulder and neck. His view flickered once before turning to black.

* * *

"Do not worry, my pupils, we will get your brothers back." Sensei Will told a silent table.

A sigh was all the response that he received.

"We did lose the war-"

"Ya, ya. We lost only the battle. But we lost more than that. We are 3/5 a team how is there fifths a team going to function!?" Kai huffed, frustrated and angry that he had to sit the whole fight stuck to the wall with 5 feet of ice encasing him.

"He's right," Cole added.

"My students, I know it is hard to lose your brother. But you can move forward. You have to move forward. To save your brothers, to save Ninjago." Sensei Wu rallied.

A moment passed, all of the boys looking each other in the eyes.

"Yes, Sensei," they replied.

"Now," Sensei Wu said, "Get some sleep, it's been a long day."

The 3 boys filed out of the kitchen, heading into their rooms.

"I call shower first!" Lloyd said, bolting down the hallway.

"Hey!" Kai said, shaking his head with a slight smile on his face.

When they had finally come into the room, they could hear the faint hissing of water coming from the closed bathroom door.

"So," Cole said, sitting on his bed, "What did I miss. I knew I should have stayed there. I shouldn't have left."

"Shoulds, shouldn't. There was a lot of should and shouldn'ts that happened." Kai said, flopping down into his bed. He bounced twice, before turning onto his stomach, staring at Cole.

"I mean, this might be the lowest point we've been at. We are missing two members. We hardly functioned missing one." Cole said.

"But we've been here before, and we've all made it out, we can do it again," Kai said.

"But now Morro's able to get the Realm crystal. He's got all the components, everything he needs." Cole sighed, "I feel like this is mission impossible."

"I know," Kai said.

"So what did I miss," Cole asked, wanting to know the events of the battle.

"Well," Kai started, "After freed you, we all attacked him. It was weird, I could hear some of Ghoultar's thoughts in my head. It felt like they were my thoughts, but they weren't, I knew they weren't. It's such and odd feeling, being possessed. It's like... the same feeling when you break your arm and you can't move a couple of your fingers no matter how hard you try. It's kinda like that, only your fingers are moving."

Cole flipped over on his back, looking up at the bunk bed above him.

"But after Lloyd threw a stalagmite at him, which Jay pushed him into, we had him pinned down and cornered. They, the ghosts, totally thought that they had him, but Zane summoned his energy dragon and used it to fight. Did you know that they can do that?"

"No, I never thought about that," Cole answered, astonished.

"It probably requires a lot of mental control." Kai said, "It didn't look easy. By the things got power to it. It was kicking our butts, knocking us around and they couldn't get back on their feet."

"I can't wait to try that!" Cole exclaimed, "They sound so awesome."

"But..." Kai started.

"But what?" Cole prodded, lifting his head up to look at Kai.

"I think... Jay killed Zane's dragon." Kai whispered.

"What?!" Cole exclaimed.

"Ya, Soul Archer managed to get one good shot in," Kai said.

"Oh. Maybe it not gone, though?" Cole suggested.

"The look on their faces were the same, Zane and the dragon's, horror and pain. Zane could feel it. He was clutching his neck like Jay had embedded it in his throat." Kai said, "And I did nothing. I couldn't do anything. It was all my fault."

"I'm done!" Lloyd sang, his hair damp and fresh clothes on, a roll of steam following him as he walked out of the bathroom.

He waltzed into the room, whistling. He looked at the solem faces of his brothers.

"Wow, some pretty dark thoughts. I think you should take a shower, relieve some stress, clear your mind." Lloyd suggested.

"Fine," Kai grumbled, "You can finish telling Cole the rest of what happened."

"Oh." Lloyd said, "You were talking about that."

"I could finish it if you don't want to." Kai offered.

"No thanks," Lloyd smiled, "You go on ahead."

"Ok," Kai said, walking into the bathroom.

"So, you were talking about the fight," Lloyd said.

"Yep." Cole sighed.

"Not one of the best fights I've ever had." Lloyd mused.

"Kai just got to the part where Jay killed Zane's dragon," Cole said.

Lloyd winced, a reminder of the scene playing in his head.

"Ya, it sounded really bad," Cole said sympathetically.

"Before or after?" Lloyd asked.

"Uh, after I think," Cole said.

"So, after Jay killed Zane's dragon, he snapped," Lloyd said.

"He just snapped?" Cole echoed.

"Ya. Soul Archer not only hurt him but his element of ice itself. The dragon and Zane and his element of ice are practically one in the same. Zane's eyes lit up bright white, looking a lot like when we had our full potentials. Only just his eyes glowed. Pain switched to anger to just... blank." Lloyd said.

"That was the snowstorm." Cole said, "I knew that had to do with him."

"Yep. He practically froze Kai to the wall." Lloyd said.

"What?!" Cole said.

"I don't think he knew what he was doing." Lloyd said, "Even after we thought the ghosts were long gone, he still didn't let up. He almost killed Jay."

Cole remained silent, not having much to say but having so much on his mind.

"Jay or Soul Archer, I don't know who was doing the the talking, he talked Zane out of it." Lloyd said, "And then...Jay took him, well, not Jay, Soul Archer."

"Maybe he knew all along. That's why he almost killed Jay, he still saw his enemy, clear as day." Cole said.

"I only noticed once I heard him call 'See ya later suckers!' I didn't know. I was trying to unfreeze Kai. And then he was gone. He stole down one of the tunnels. I tried to chase him, but he was already to far gone." Lloyd sighed, painfully remembering the moment.

"And then you came. You know the rest of the story." Lloyd finished glumly.

"You know, it feels better to talk about it," Cole said.

"Ya," Lloyd said, "It doesn't replace the guilty feeling I still have."

"Do you think it is my fault?" Cole asked.

"Of course not!" Lloyd exclaimed.

"I don't think it's yours either," Cole said, proving his point, "So why should it be just your fault?"

The room was silent for a minute and they could just make out Kai's soft singing.

Even with the solemn mood in the room, Cole and Lloyd couldn't help laughing. Kai had always insisted that they were hearing things and that he definitely did not sing in the shower.

Soon Kai opened the door dress in a red T-shirt and gray pants.

"No deepstone gi?" Lloyd asked.

"What's the use?" Kai said, "It's already got a hole in it."

"We could ask Misako or Sensei Wu to sow it up for us," Cole suggested.

"That sounded like a great idea!" Lloyd said, sliding the gi over his head.

Kai accepted the gi and passed a red shirt to him.

"No green? It's my favorite color." Lloyd said.

"I'm tired of green, wearing another color for a change. You look like a cucumber all the time," Kai laughed, turning out of the room with a smirk.


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey! Here's the second chapter of the story! I hope I didn't start off too dark but whatever. Whelp, away with the reviews!**

 **Yveltaldarkrai3**

 **I already love this story. :) Keep it up!**

 _ **Whoo! #"*Confetti*"# congrats on being the first to review on this story! Thanks!**_

 **Toothlessturtle21**

 **Yay! Sequel! It's gonna be awesome, I can tell! And cucumber Lloyd finally has to wear a different color XP**

 _ **Let me tell you many times I had to retry spelling cucumber. I had to respell it once just trying to type this sentence. #Facepalm# It took me about 5 tries, ridiculous right!? I guess I never knew how to spell cucumber all this time. XP**_

 **Pokegirl19**

 **You're off to a great start. Great job. Can't wait for the next chapter.**

 _ **Thanks, I tried to make it interesting but also a bit of a recap of what had happened in the last book.**_

 **SweetHeart114**

 **Good to know that the boys still have a sense of humor. This is a great start to the story. Can't wait to read the next one. Keep up the good work!**

 _ **Thanks, I feel that sometimes when I have some dark stuff, that I need to pair it up with some lighter stuff or else everything just seems so bleak and black.**_

* * *

"Zane?" Someone called a name...his name. He was Zane...the nindroid. He had shut down due to a...fall. All he could see was black. And then he could see.

"Thank goodness," Jay breathed, his face appearing above him.

Zane looked at him suspiciously, sitting up.

"Nope, no ghosts, it's just me." Jay shrugged, "They left me here with some duck tape, some screws, a screwdriver, and a command to fix you. I was just going to wait for your self-repairs to fix it instead."

Zane just blinked, the information a little too much for him.

"Look, what can I do to prove to you that I really am me?" Jay asked desperately.

"Nothing, I know it's you," Zane said, standing up.

Jay grabbed Zane, pulling him into a hug, "I'm so sorry,"

Zane, who was taller than Jay, rested his chin on the top of Jay's head, his red hair tickling his nose, "It's okay,"

"No, it's not," Jay sighed, leaning into Zane, "I just feel so trapped."

They could hear faint whispers coming down the hall, the only indication that ghosts were coming.

"Please," Jay pleaded, pushing him away, "Can you pretend to be broken still? I don't want to go back,"

Zane laid down on the floor, switching his eyes off, everything disappearing into the black. He could feel Jay's hand on his shoulder, squeezing slightly.

"Hey!" Morro demanded, "What's taking so long?!"

"Sorry, it's just it was a bad fall and with these crude materials, it's hard for me to repair him with. But it will get done soon." Jay said, his voice sounding so dull.

"It better," Morro grumbled.

"Masssster," Zane heard on of the ghosts hiss, "You could just take Jay and go get the realm crystal, we don't need to waste our time here. Melt this robot into nothing and we can be on our way."

Jay's hand tighten around his shoulder.

"Soul Archer," Morro growled between clenched teeth, "Who was put in charge of this mission."

"Uh, you sir," Soul Archer politely replied.

"Now tell me, what is better, two masters of Spinjitsu and element wielders, or one," Morro said.

"Uh, two." Soul Archer answered.

"Good, now ever question my authority again or the Preeminent shall be seeing you soon." Morro threatened.

"Yes, Morro," Soul Archer replied.

"You," Morro commanded, probably pointing at Jay, "Hurry up in fix him before I decide to change my mind and side with Soul Archer. You have two days."

Zane waited in the darkness, which seemed like an eternity, trying to fix out what was going on in the silence.

"He's gone," Jay whispered.

Zane's eyes lit up, his view coming back, everything looking so beautiful and colorful compared to the blackness he had been sitting in.

"Thanks," Jay said, "Now we need to figure out how to get out of here."

"Vengestone," Zane murmured, running his hand along the side of the cage.

Jay appeared by his side, looking out at the dimly lit cave.

"This is hopeless," Jay sighed, putting his face in his hands.

"Hmm...the chances of escape are low, but it is not impossible," Zane commented.

"Thanks," Jay sarcastically replied.

Zane sat down next to Jay, putting an arm around his shoulder.

"You're welcome," Zane smiled, even though he could easily tell Jay was being sarcastic.

"I can't believe what it would be like to be possessed by Morro." Jay started, "I mean, Soul Archer's ok, he doesn't really talk directly to me. He hates how Morro keeps ordering him around. That's pretty much it. His life story is pretty tragic, though."

"Hmm," Zane answered, "Morro pretty much takes every chance to belittle you. He was to feel in power, in control. And unfortunately, he thinks the only way to do that is by pushing others down. I feel kind of sympathetic, he's still hurting from not becoming the green ninja."

"That doesn't excuse anything," Jay said.

"Look, I'll do everything I can to make sure Morro doesn't possess you, okay?" Zane said.

"But I don't want him possessing you." Jay sighed, leaning into his arm.

"It'll be okay. It's not going to be much of a difference. Sometimes...I still feel like he's still in my head." Zane admitted.

"It's not okay!" Jay argued, "That shouldn't be okay! You should have to deal with this! I shouldn't have to deal with this!"

"Shh!" Zane shushed him, "You're going to attract unwanted attention."

"Look, let's just try to find a way out of here," Jay said, not wanting to talk about the subject anymore.

"Okay," Zane said, standing up.

* * *

"Again!" Sensei Will commanded.

Kai and Lloyd shifted into position, wooden aeroblades in hand. They stood almost back to back, guarding each other's blind spots. A faint green glow from the floor indicated that's ghost was a presence, unknown to them. It drew close to them boys before a hand grabbed Kai's ankle causing him shriek.

"Wrong." Sensei Wu said. Cole, appearing from the floor, "Look for the faint green glow. Again."

Kai and Lloyd got back into position waiting for Cole to come at them again. This time Lloyd was able to see the faint green and signaled to Kai. They waited, eyes following the light. When Cole's hand came up, Kai's wooden aeroblade went right through it.

"Good," Sensei Wu nodded.

"Cole, can you please attack Kai and Lloyd now?" Sensei Will asked.

"Sure, you ready to get your butts kicked?" Cole asked the two.

"You wish," Kai laughed.

With a smooth diving movement, Cole disappeared into the floor, the green tinge, giving him away from Kai and Lloyd, who had figured out how to track it. Kai waited over it wooden aeroblade in hand. The wooden plank he was standing on however, lifted up and threw him off before settling back down in place, looking like an innocent wooden board again.

"Hey! No fair!" Kai complained, dusting himself off.

"Nothing's fair." Sensei Wu commented, sipping his tea casually.

"Good thing I'm just getting warmed up then," Kai said.

Cole drifted up from the floor, holding a wooden aeroblade of his own, the two meet in the middle aeroblades locked together. Light, quick footsteps indicated Lloyd's attack and Cole dropped down into the floor, letting Kai have to do a quick roll out of his fall and Lloyd's aeroblade hit the deck.

"Gotcha," Cole said, tapping Kai in the back.

Kai gave a quiet, frustrated growl but otherwise said nothing.

"Sensei," Lloyd said, "How can we beat a ghost if their powers make them almost impossible to hit."

"Almost impossible, yes, but you only to hit them one time with your aeroblade." Sensei Wu said, "They are quick and nimble but we have to be quicker. It is like a game of cat and mouse, you just have for the perfect moment to strike."

"Ok," Lloyd said, thinking about what Sensei Wu had just told him, "Let's try it again."

"I think that is enough for today," Sensei Wu said.

"Wait," Cole called, "We need to train more."

"Cole, as important as training is, we must make sure that we don't tire ourselves too much in case Morro and his friends attack us." Sensei Wu explained.

"Fine," Cole said, obviously not agreeing.

"In the meantime, we will have to look for where the Realm Crystal may be hidden. We need to make sure that we don't fall behind the original threat. We must find the Realm Crystal and stop Morro from unleashing his Preeminent."

"Yes, Sensei," They responded.


	3. Chapter 3

**Well, would you look at the time. It's well overdue for another update! I have been writing this on my phone and then sending this to my computer, so apologize if it has any big spelling mistakes. I've got not too much to say so away with the story!**

* * *

"Ugh," Cole sighed, a picture of the symbol and a map next to him, "We should by trying to find Zane and Jay! Not trying to find some stupid crystal! I don't understand Sensei's logic."

The room was stuck in an uneasy silence for a minute, only the sounds of shuffling papers the only thing that filled the silent void of the room.

"Explain."

Cole froze recognizing Sensei Wu's voice. "Sensei! I-uh... I didn't mean it like that. I didn't mean to be disrespectful." Cole mumbled.

"Then what did you mean?" Sensei Wu asked casually.

"Uh-" Cole said. Taking a deep breath he said, "I don't understand why we are spending all of our time looking for some fancy diamond. We are missing 2 members of our team! We should be looking for them instead! I feel like we care more about the stupid rock than our own teammates."

Cole started to cry, putting his hands up to his face, kind of embarrassed to be seen crying in front of his brothers.

"I understand," Sensei Wu said, wishing he could put his arm around Cole, "It is not easy to lose your brothers to an evil force. Zane and Jay are not forgotten and they are high on our priority list, but we also have a duty to the people of Ninjago. We cannot give up because we lost someone. If we do, many innocent people will lose others too."

Cole wiped his eyes even though he had no tears, conflicting morals running rampant in his head.

"Okay, Sensei Wu," Lloyd said, deciding to trust in his Sensei's decision.

"It's going to be okay," Kai said, "I mean, we've been through this all before, right?"

The room slowly, moved back into motion again, the shuffling of paper and bored sighs filling the room.

"Look," Sensei Wu said, "We are not forgetting about them. We are going to find them. Okay?"

"Ok," Cole said, feeling a little better.

He pulled out the maps and started the long and boring search again as Sensei Wu started to walk away. Still, he couldn't help but feel like he was turning his back to his brothers.

* * *

Jay, with the help of Zane, had managed to make a more convincing scene that he had been fixing Zane. Zane was sprawled out on the ground, face down with a back compartment on his neck open and several gears laying around.

"One day left," Morro called, standing in front of the cage.

"I know!" Jay frustratedly called back to Morro, "But with this equipment, I can't get much work done!"

"I knew you would say that," Morro said, dropping a toolbox at his own feet.

He nudged it with his foot, sliding it between the bars.

"I would say Don't try anything," Morro added, "But I know you can escape with those tools."

Morro laughed, turned, then left, his ghoulish companions following his trail. He could hear the soft clinks of Jay rustling through the toolbox.

He walked a little ways down, turning and weaving into a nice circular opening in the cavern. It was open at the top, the morning sky shining light through. He had stumbled upon the area while waiting for his ghouls to return with one Spinjitsu master at the least.

He looked up into the sky, watching the sun. He remembered waking up every morning to the sky, where ever he traveled, he almost never had a roof over his head when he was alive. He could remember parts when he was alive, the important ones anyways, or at least he thought so. He couldn't remember everything, a common thing among ghosts, who were only a fragment of themselves, only partly still clinging to the world.

How Cole maintained all his memories, he would never know. He knew he was missing things, things that didn't quite connect, where he knew there were parts faded away. But he remembered most of it. "Those parts were probably not interesting in the least," Morro concluded to himself.

"Those parts were probably not interesting in the least," Morro concluded to himself.

He stepped over to the small table set up, a map and a thousand notes scrawled across it. He picked up the pencil and got back to work. Trying to work thousands of plans, trying to predict outcomes and strategies, something that Zane had made easy.

"Back to the drawing board?" Soul Archer asked.

"What now," Morro growled, not wanting to be bothered by the ghost at the particular moment.

Morro's relationship with Soul Archer was more of a compromise to work together to complete a common goal. He knew if he was in trouble, Soul Archer wouldn't hesitate a moment to leave him. He worked with Morro because he had to, not because he wanted to.

"I still think that we should just leave with-" Soul Archer said.

"Are you fighting this with me again?" Morro growled, more tiredly than angrily.

Soul Archer rolled his eyes and wandered away, presumably to terrorize some more cave critters.

He drew another strategy on the map, before scribbling it out furiously. They would undermine him. They always did, overconfidence and lack of backup plans had led to him losing to them again and again. His team of ghouls was the best, yet when they faced up against the ninja, they were overpowered. It might have to do with the fact that the ninja had more allies on their team than him. He would have to slowly claw his way up to victory. Nothing different than when he was alive.

He started sketching out another plan, taking into consideration the ninja's abilities, his ghost's abilities, and the area of the battle. He already knew where the tomb was, now he just had to stay ahead, unless the ninja had already figured out where it was putting this planning to waste.

"Ugh!" Morro screamed, gripping the pencil so tightly that it splintered before shattering.

"You having another temper tantrum?" A centipede obviously possessed by Soul Archer said.

"I am much older than you." Morro snarled.

"Don't act like it," the centipede snickered, dodging a rock that Morro threw at him.

"I need a break," Morro said, drifting up from the table and going through a wall.

Sometimes he wished he could give up this crazy quest and go do whatever he wanted, but it was almost impossible to go against someone who owned your soul. He would go and catch up with old friends, see the world, maybe terrorize a city or two.

He realized that had drifted close to the area where he kept the caged elemental controllers. He could hear talking, which caught his attention. He peeked into the entrance of the tunnel, looking in. Jay was standing there, jiggling a now loosened bar of the cage. Zane was standing next to him an assortment of tools popped out of his arm.

"It's almost through, keep going." He could hear Jay whisper.

He sighed, he could never get a break. The drifted into the room, the duo not noticing yet. Playing the bad guy part wasn't easy, but it sure was a hell lot of fun.


	4. Chapter 4

**Dum. Dum. Dum. Another chapter done! ~Michael Jackson pose~**

 **ShinxLovesNinjago**

 **OH MY COWS COLE IS CRYING (but isn't he a ghost, wouldn't he, like...poof?)**

 _ **He cries without tears, otherwise, you better make sure that you don't get too sad or too happy.**_

 **Zane-is-everyone's-senpai**

 **I WANT MOOOOOOOOORE! This is awesome!**

 _ **Your wish is my command. With the power of magic, I give you...the next chapter.**_

* * *

"Well, well," Morro said.

Morro could see Zane's surprise, in the way that he stiffened.

"Oh, he-y Morro, can you believe that I fixed Zane?" Jay stuttered nervously.

"And broke the bar of the cage?" Morro raised an eyebrow.

Jay gave a nervous chuckle accompanied by a shrug.

All the tools that sprouted out of Zane's arm had folded neatly back into their compartments.

"Miss your explosive shurikens?" Morro asked, "Ya, I deactivated that. We wouldn't want you to be able to escape that easily. But I didn't know about those tools. I am guessing you have a self-repair system?"

The two just stayed as far away from Morro as possible, which wasn't very far considering the length of the cage.

"It would have been terrible if you broke it, vengestone is so expensive. I don't know how I'll replace it." Morro said, feigning a faint.

"Hasn't anyone told you that you'd be great in theater? I suggest you do something better with your time and take it up as a hobby." Zane replied saltily.

"I already have a hobby. Cursing this entire, dreaded, worthless world that you call home. It's just a dirty rock ready to be worn away by time." Morro spat.

He got no witty remark, no defensive answer. Just silence as his reply. He turned around, wondering if they had just no reply, or if they didn't even care enough to defend their view-points and morals.

Jay looked up at Zane's face, which was blank, hidden from any emotion that he was feeling. He could almost see gears spinning his head, but what he was thinking, he had no clue.

"What'cha thinking about?" Morro asked, floating on his back in the air.

Still more silence. Morro flipped over, looking like he was laying, belly-down, on an invisible couch that also happened to be floating in the air.

"Cat got your tongue?" Morro asked, determined to get an answer.

"If-" Zane started, "If I comply with you. Will you promise to let Jay go unharmed?"

"What!?" Jay shrieked, "You can't just give up! I just got you back! I can't leave you again! Let alone with these guys!"

Morro stopped, thinking about the offering. Zane knew he couldn't resist, he had carefully planned it out, stretching it to the farthest boundary that Morro would accept.

"Deal," Morro stated.

"Zane..." Jay said.

"I know. But one of us has to get out of here alive." Zane said, pulling Jay into a hug, "Look I said I would do anything to prevent them from possessing you."

"But I want to be here with you. I don't want you to be alone." Jay said.

"Technically, he's not alone. He's got me." Morro added, earning him a glare from Jay.

"It'll be okay. I'll be okay." Zane said, "And the sooner you get out of here the better."

"Great," Morro said, "Soul Archer! I need the keys!"

"Fine." Soul Archer said, walking out of a wall.

He handed a brass key to Morro who unlocked the door, and Zane stepped out, the only sign of his nervousness was the floor freezing slightly, now that he was away from the vengestone.

"Here," Morro said, producing a contract from thin air. "It's a contract. You can read through it. Sign you name at the bottom when you're done. It's a ghost contract so if you don't uphold your side of the bargain, your soul belongs to me. Or rather the preeminent. It's how Soul Archer got Ronin's soul."

Jay watched Zane carefully read through the paper, before grabbing the floating pen and signing at the bottom, scrawling his perfect fancy signature at the bottom.

"Are you sure there aren't any tricks?" Jay asked, peering through the bars, trying to read the small script on the piece of paper.

"No, I read through it carefully. I basically can't fight him for as long as he is possessing me. I have my own free will for as long as he's not. In return, he's going to release you. " Zane explained. "I'm ready."

Jay didn't want to look and turned away as a bright green glow filled the room.

"Wanna give your brother one last hug?" Morro offered.

"This is for Zane, not for you." Jay said, tightly hugging the nindroid, through the bars, "Be strong, we'll come back for you."

"Great." Morro said motioning to Soul Archer, "Now can you please take Jay and lock him in, I don't know, one the serpentine tombs?"

"What?!" Jay and Soul Archer said together.

"Woah, Zane's mad," Morro stated. "I mean he's free and unharmed. I'm keeping my side of the bargain."

"You made a bargain!?" Soul Archer said, "I finally get a sufficient body and you bargained it away!"

"Look, we were going to kill them all anyways. I'm not killing him. I'm just specifically leaving him somewhere. I mean I can't just let him go with all the information he's probably acquired." Morro argued with presumably Zane.

"No, it's perfectly in the 'parameters' of the contract. I'm not killing him. It's didn't say anything about leave him a specific place." Morro argued with the voice inside his head again.

"Wait!" Jay said, "It's okay. I can find a way out. I kinda knew that these guys had some trick up their sleeves. Just-just don't lose your soul, okay?"

"Sure, sure. You can find your way out." Soul Archer grinned.

"I mean it's pretty easy to trick people once you know how they think." Morro mused. "You're pretty much immortal with self-repairs and what not. The only thing that can stop or kill you is that contract. And the rules are easy. Just abide by them and you won't lose your soul."

"What about Ronin?" Jay asked.

"Oh, Ronin only got out of it but making another deal with some idiot," Morro said, casting a scathing glance at Soul Archer.

"He's a cheat and liar!" Soul Archer protested.

"Whatever." Morro rolled his eyes, "What's done is done. Now hurry up and take Jay so we can get on our way."

With a huff and a flash of green, Jay walked out of the cavern.

"I won't be long," Jay waved.

"Hopefully," Morro muttered under his breath.

* * *

Jay rode into the Glacier Barrens, astride his motorcycle, swiped from a parking lot. Chilly icy air blew through his hair as he rode up to the entrance of the Hypnobrai's former tomb. It was sealed, but not for long as he found the lever that caused it to open. The wind blew the ice and snow around, as the mouth of the tomb opened.

"Enjoy your freedom." Soul Archer told Jay, "I hope you can find your way out."

With a snicker, Jay jumped into the tomb, landing on the ground.

"See ya," Soul Archer said, floating up into the sky.

Jay could only watch as the entrance to the Hypnobrai's tomb closed, sealing him away. Jay picked himself up from the ice, looking around.

"Whelp...looks like we are going to die here together." Jay heard someone sigh, "Great."

He turned around to see Ronin sitting on an ice lump.


	5. Chapter 5

**WHOOOA! IT'S RONIN! GUESS YOU GUYS DIDN'T SEE THAT COMING! Also, I stopped writing Pixal's name like P.I.X.A.L. 'cuse I got tired of writing her name like that. It's super annoying to write.**

 **ShinxLovesNinjago**

 **RONIN WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN THERE WHAT HAVE YOU DONE THIS TIME (AND ALREADY GIVING, DECLARING THAT YOU'RE GOING TO DIE WITH JAY, TOGETHER)**

 _ **Ronin: "Hey, I'm a realist. And we aren't going to die together. Most likely one of us is going to die first, and it's not going to be me."**_

 _ **Jay: "Are you talking to yourself?" ;-;**_

 **CraftyNinjaCat13**

 **NOOOOOOOOOO (grabs some deepstone gauntlets and punches the shite out of Morro) OOOOOOOOOOO!**

 _ **You have the same idea as Jay. Plus did you steal those from Ronin's pawn shop?**_

 **Kairocksrainbow**

 **What in the-RONIN?! What are you doing here? NAW ZANE! DON'T! EEEEE! There goes Jay. Motor Mouth is screwed. Great Update!**

 _ **And Kairocksrainbow's head exploded. (BWOOSH) Tiny micro-splosion - Jay approved name**_

* * *

Jay could feel his anger and desperation starting to boil when he turned to see Ronin.

"You dirty traitor," Jay growled.

"Nice to see you too." Ronin saltily replied.

With a roar, Jay tackled Ronin, sending them both spinning on the ice.

"Wait!" Ronin yelped, as Jay was preparing to launch another attack, "I know you really upset and you have good reason to be."

"Save it!" Jay cried, chasing after Ronin, "I don't want to hear your lies."

"I know I took the sword and-" Ronin tried to explain, sliding around the tomb.

"We trusted you!" Jay yelled, "I trusted you! I wanted to believe that you were on our side! We had an advantage and you gave it away! You had our trust and you gave it away!"

Jay caught up and tackled Ronin, sending them both tumbling into the slither pit. The previous fight of the Hypnobrai was not reset, so the field was still slanted and the ice weapons still hung from the top.

Ronin hastily grabbed a pick ax and threw it at Jay.

"Now you want to kill me?!" Jay ducked and it smashed on the wall behind him.

He reached up and grabbed two swords. Ronin grabbed a sword and shield and they clashed in the middle.

"Look-" Ronin said, swinging his sword.

"I don't want to hear it!" Jay shouted, swinging both of his swords.

Ronin barely caught the swords with his shield. Jay kicked him and watched as he went sprawling down the slanted side of the Slither pit.

"Look we can make a deal here." Ronin said as Jay stood above him, swords in hand.

"There's no deal." Jay said softly, "We aren't getting out of here. A tribe of Hypnobrai couldn't, so what's the chance that we can."

Jay signed and dropped his swords, putting a hand up to his head. He glanced back down and offered his hand to Ronin.

"Might as well be friendly if we are going to live the rest of our lives together." Jay shrugged.

"Look. It wasn't me who sent you to the Lost Caverns. Morro possessed me and used me." Ronin said, taking Jay's hand.

Jay searched Ronin's face, looking for any sign that he was pulling his finger.

"Fine." Jay said, "I believe you."

"I'm really sorry." Ronin said, "But I made a deal. Another one. Third times the charm, am I right? Well, if I brought them the sword then all of my debts and former contracts would be void. I couldn't resist. But they backstabbed me."

"I guess you finally got a taste of your own medicine," Jay said.

"Uhh, how's your mechanical friend?" Ronin asked.

"Sorry, sensitive subject." Ronin said after seeing the look on Jay's face.

"No, it's okay." Jay sighed, laying down on an ice bench, "He's been better. Now Morro's got him again."

"How's Nya?" Ronin asked, switching the subject.

"Probably going to kill you the next time she see's you," Jay answered, cracking a small smile.

"Oh boy, I deserve it." Ronin said.

"You've probably already tried breaking out already correct?" Jay asked.

"You bet." Ronin laughed, "And let me tell you I've got nothing."

Jay looked up at the sealed entrance of the tomb, studying it carefully.

* * *

Nya looked into the control room, the faint hum of controls and blips of radars the only sounds.

"Pixal?" Nya called, looking for the android.

"What?" Pixal answered, but Nya could hear her voice waver.

"How are you?" Nya asked the screen, which was still the map, Pixal's face yet to appear.

"I'm- I'm fine." Pixal settled with.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Nya asked.

"No, I'm afraid that if I think about it I might get too upset," Pixal answered.

"It's okay to be upset," Nya said, leaning up against the dashboard.

No answer.

"I'm really sorry," Nya added.

"I am too." Pixal answered, "I should have never let him go."

"But it was Zane's decision to make. He had to go. He wanted to go." Nya said.

"Zane also said that he would always be there for me. How can he put this over me!? I thought-I thought I was his everything." Pixal sobbed.

"Zane didn't put anything over you. He was protecting you, protecting your world from Morro." Nya answered trying to soothe the heartbroken android.

"He didn't protect my emotions." Pixal whispered, "Every time that I lose him, it just hurts me more. He didn't even bring me along!"

The whole Bounty shook from Pixal sobs, things flickered on and off, the Bounty rocking back and forth.

"I knew he knew it was dangerous and he didn't want me to come along for that reason, but he left me here. He left me here after we had been apart for so long." Pixal reasoned.

"I'm sorry." Pixal said, "Everyone is probably worried about the Bounty rocking."

"Well, they will live," Nya said, releasing her grip from the sliding table.

"I just stuck here. I feel trapped. I can't do anything. It was like when we were at Chen's island." Pixal said.

"I wish I could do something to help you," Nya said.

Pixal' face finally appeared on the screen, her eyes red from crying and her face crinkled with worry.

"You are helping. You're talking to me." Pixial said, wiping her eyes.

"I know you guys are so important and lead important lives with important jobs. But for once, I just wish Zane would make me feel more important than all of that." Pixal said, "I know that's selfish of me. But it's-it's the way I feel."

"It's okay, Pixal. We'll get him back." Nya said.


	6. Chapter 6

***Insert Introductory phrase here* One day I'm going to go back and count all the chapters that have started with "Looks like I didn't post again in forever" and see just for the fun of it. I feel like I start every single chapter with that phrase. Anyways, if you're like me then your 3rd quarter is ending and that means that you are in a crunch for time. Hopefully not as bad as me, but I assume not since your reading this. Or procrastinating :P**

 **Sorry if this has extremely bad grammer, hopefully you can figure out what I mean, I didn't really have to time to proof read it too much, but I think I got the big things. Also sorry for no reviews, I read them though and thank you. :)**

* * *

"Yep and then because they had no use for me, they threw me down here." Ronin concluded.

"I mean it could be worse," Jay said, "At least we have running water and food. And we aren't freezing to death."

The shelter of the tomb was similar to an igloo, surprisingly warm even though it was made of ice and snow. Some plants had grown in the shelter of the cold and thanks to Ronin identification, which Jay only half trusted, they were edible.

"We can't just live off of plants." Ronin said.

"But we can live off of plants 'till we find a way to get out of here," Jay said.

"Look hot shot, there is no way out of here. If Hypnobrai couldn't do it, how can only two people can?" Robin sighed.

"One clever thief and one elemental master may be able to." Jay encouraged.

"One caught thief and one broken elemental master." Robin reminded.

"I'm am not broken!" Jay protested.

"Does your element work?" Robin asked.

"No, but-" Jay said.

"No but's. It doesn't work. It's broken." Robin interrupted.

"Haha, butts," Jay laughed, his immaturity getting the best of him.

"Glad you find that funny. Your's is going to be stuck down here for the rest of eternity." Ronin replied, rolling his eyes.

Jay tucked his hands into his pockets with a sigh. He fingers brushed somethings, it's ridged edges softly pricking his fingertips. He pulled it out, surprised as he wasn't one to leave things in his pockets.

It was a printed piece of paper, not unlike a receipt you would receive from a grocery store. He unfolded it, reading.

"Jay,

I'm sorry I had to leave you with this decision, but it's the only way. This was the best outcome. I know you're going to worry about me, but I think you should worry more about escaping. I've enclosed the information of the where the real tomb of the Spinjitsu master's toms is. Please tell our brothers that I'll always still be on their side no matter what.

Be Strong,

Zane Jullien"

Jay traced the edge of the paper trying to hold back tears. " _When had Zane found the time to slip this into his pocket? Let alone print it unseen._ "

"You got so quiet," Ronin said, "What's up?"

He received no reply and turned to see what held all of Jay's attention. Hoping for the best that he had discovered a way out, and the worse...well maybe he was having a heart attack?

"Woah. Are you crying?" Ronin asked, catching sight of Jay's face, "I mean if it's about the broken thing, I was only teasing. Or maybe being stuck here for an eternity?"

He looked over Jay's shoulder and read the note, Jay handing him the note halfway through. Ronin didn't know what to do, he wasn't really good at the comforting thing. It's just wasn't his specialty.

"Uhh-" Ronin just said, his brain blanking.

"I'll take that as sympathetic enough," Jay smiled, relieving Ronin from his burden.

Jay wiped his eyes, and smile looking sorrowfully determined.

"Zane knew that I would be able to get this to our brothers. Zane knew I could do it. That's why he gave me this letter. That's why he threw himself back into Morro's clutches. Because he knew I would've able to save the day." Jay smiled, his spirits rising, "He trusts me."

He laughed, the sound of light and joy-filled the tomb, echoing off the walls, reflecting Jay's positivity back at him.

A crackling blue light danced at Jay's fingertips.

* * *

"Is he back yet?" Bansha asked Morro who was busy pacing around.

"Of course not. I should have sent you. You would have been back by now." Morro said, unaware of the gracious amounts of praise he was giving Bansha.

Bansha beamed, seeing this as a chance to get good with Morro, even take Soul Archer's place as second to Morro.

"Wow, the ghost takes a long time to make it all the way to the serpentine tomb and then back. Halfway across Ninjago. Being surprised." Zane chided.

"Shut it," Morro growled.

Zane sighed. Although he wasn't able to do much, he took every chance to talk back, annoy, and disrupt Morro's thoughts in general.

He existed in Morro's subconscious, left there, pushed away from the controls. He could had almost all of the 5 senses, except touch and taste. He also had a full body, allowing him to walk the black abys of the subconscious. He wasn't sure if Morro could see him, but he bet he could.

"Do you have to be so annoying?" Morro asked.

"I'll stop being annoying if you stop being evil," Zane replied.

Morro stamped his foot, almost if he imagining squashing the nindroid.

"Bossss," Bansha hissed, "Soul Archer has been so distant lately. He hasn't been a real help. He has been more of a nuisance. He doesn't deserve being in a position like your second in command."

Morro caught in real quickly, Bansha intent of being his right-hand man shone clearly, no sugar coating, no nothing.

"Soul Archer has been a real pain lately. Plus I suspect that Bansha is probably more loyal to me than Soul Archer." Morro thought.

"Decisions, decisions," Zane commented, "What to choose. The stronger one, or the smarter one?"

"I can't think with you talking to me." Morro barked.

"Sorry," Zane smiled, testing the physics of the subconscious.

The leaped into the air and was left spinning there. The gravity resembling space, although a little less.

"Can you stop!? You're flying through my vision." Morro yelled.

Zane couldn't see himself but, he knew that Morro certainly could.

"Does this bother you?" Zane asked, waving his arms and legs.

"Ugh. You're like an annoying fly. I wish I could just smoosh you." Morro sighed.

An invisible barrier hit Zane like a freight train. It smashed him down, the feeling of moving although the scenery never changed. Just black. It stopped after a few seconds, and Zane hit the "floor" of the black abyss.

He picked himself up, brushing unreal dust off. He glanced around...nothing. It was quiet. He couldn't see the world that he clung so desperately to. Just nothing. He had ripped away from his reality. Stripped of the few things he had left. Sound and sight.

"Morro?" Zane called into the abyss.

He felt around, they only thing that was there with himself was the floor, which only held his feet, his hands unphased and unfeeling of the barrier.

It was dark. It was black. And for the first time, Zane was cut off from the world. The world which he loved.


	7. Chapter 7

**Here we go! Another (kinda short) chapter! Oh ya, it has been mentioned, kinda in the past, I forgot to address it, about maybe having some technoshipping. I mean, as my kinda second story, it is a continuation of the first, I don't think I will do technoshipping.**

 **Reason 1: I am not too good with writing romance stuff. I either find it too cheesy or just not believable. I don't know, it just never sits right with me.**

 **Reason 2: It would be kinda hard now with Pixal. I mean, it would go two ways. Pixal and Zane date Jay. Or Zane dumps Pixal and falls for Jay. I mean he probably wouldn't dump her if I was going to write it in, I mean it would be something along the lines that Zane felt more of a connection with Jay after all they've been through together.**

 **Anyways, I just don't think I will be able to do it right. So I don't think it will ever happen. But maybe I will get a good idea and whelp-maybesomethingmightgoon. But the likelihood of that is very low.**

 **Ps. With the reviews, I got lazy and decided to type my answer instead of the whole review.**

 **StoriesAreMagic-** _ **Thanks, I mean I think they would be super close to each other after almost dying, saving the world, fighting, etc. every single season.**_

 **Zaptrap-** _ **Yep, I thought that there was a lack of his point of view for him being one of the main focuses in the story. I just hope that it balances out. I am well aware that some of the ninja, Kai, Cole-ish, don't get as much attention, but I try not to leave anyone out. Kai doesn't get the least amount of attention, though.**_

 **Kairocksrainbow-** _ **Yep, I gave Jay his power back, decided it was about time. Powers-ex-machina.**_

* * *

Silence, no Zane drifting through his vision, nothing.

"Uh," Bansha asked, trying to read his stunned expression.

"May I have a moment, I will consider your request," Morro said, dismissing the ghost.

Bansha thanked him and flew about if the area. Leaving him alone.

"Zane?" Morro called, wondering if he had made the nindroid disappear forever.

He had no real opinion on Zane. Zane was after all just a robot. A tool. The same as how you don't have an opinion about a screw driver. He did kinda like Zane, although often annoying, he liked the company which was different from his ghouls, although he tried to tell himself that he didn't have said feelings.

He searched his mind for the nindroid. Usually, the nindroid remain in the top-right part of the screen in his own little box. (Similar to Pixal's appearance in Zane's view)

"Is this some kind of trick?" Morro thought, wondering what the nindroid could be doing now. Maybe he had another hidden trick up his sleeve and he was putting it into motion now.

"Zane! I demand to see you right now!" Morro commanded, fearing the worst.

Zane appeared on the right side of his vision, looking shaken, his eyes blinking.

"Where have you been?" Morro demanded, ignoring the nindroid's unusual behavior.

"Where did you put me?" Zane asked in a small voice.

"What?" Morro asked, baffled.

"How long has it been? Weeks? Months?" Zane continued, looking around.

"Uhhh..." Morro said, wondering what was up with the robot, "It's been like... 5 minutes?"

"5...minutes?" Zane repeated, stunned, "But that must mean that the passage of time must be different."

"Yes. What's wrong with you?" Morro asked, completely thrown off.

"Wrong with me?! What wrong with you?! You shoved me into a dark abyss of nothing! No light, no view, no sound, no nothing! You left me there forever!" Zane wailed, sounding like a lost kitten.

"Woah, what?!" Morro asked, "I did nothing to you."

"You did something." Zane shot back.

"All I said was I wish you were gone and thought about locking you away forever," Morro said.

And like that Zane was gone.

"Hmm..." Morro said, "That could be useful if he gets annoying."

After a second of silence, Morro decided to bring Zane back up again, seeing no reason why to keep him there.

Zane glitched into his screen again. Looking in a panic.

"Whelp, we know how that happened. Such a shame that I didn't think about that earlier." Morro commented, making it well clear that he wasn't afraid to send the nindroid back down there.

"Please don't put me back down there," Zane whimpered.

"If you're good then I won't have too," Morro shot back.

Zane nodded slightly, his only acknowledgment to Morro's words.

* * *

"Cole?" Lloyd called, hearing the sounds of heavy breathing.

It couldn't be Kai who was trailing behind him, shuffling sounds of him not picking up his feet all the way.

He walked out into the deck, seeing Cole zip around, aeroblade in hand.

"Cole?" Kai called again, startling the ghost.

Cole fumbled, his concentrated grip on the aeroblade faltering. He swerved out of the way to avoid the blades.

"Ugh, you shouldn't scare me." Cole groaned.

"Don't you think it's a little dangerous for you to be training with an aeroblade?" Lloyd asked, worried.

"Do I get a choice in the battle? Nope. So I better get used to it." Cole stated, scooping the blade off the ground.

"Think you should take a rest?" Kai said.

"Unlike you, I don't have muscles. Or skin. Or stamina. I can go on forever." Cole said, fidgeting with the aeroblade, tracing the oulines of the handle.

"Still." Lloyd said, "Take a break. Relax. Wanna play a game?"

Cole shrugged off Lloyd's invitation much to his disappointment.

"I'm just about to beat your high score." Kai taunted.

That caught Cole's attention.

"What's your high score," Cole asked casually.

"445,778,362." Kai smiled.

"I might just take you up on that offer, Lloyd." Cole laughed, noting that Kai was close to his high score, and well he could have him beating it.


	8. Chapter 8

**Whoooo! We hit 50 reviews, or at least we did at this point in time. Thanks to everyone who liked and commented on my story so far!**

 **RJ-**

 **I like so much this! I think how Zane will react if Morro locks him more time... Hope that not happens! Awesome story please continue!**

 _ **Too late, I already have the next few chapters written and I can already guarantee that will happen. *Muwahahaha!***_

* * *

Electricity crackled in the tomb, casting shadows on Jay's elated face. Ronin stood nearby shocked. ( ** _haha, lightning pun_** )

Jay relaxed, lightning dancing playfully around his fingertips. His laughter rang around tomb over the sounds of lightning.

"Well, I'll be," Ronin muttered under his breath.

"Yes!" Jay crowed.

Lightning stitched together, weaving around each other slowly forming the outline of a dragon. With a sprinkle of excess energy, Jay lightning dragon solidified, roaring and flapping it's wings, knocking ice everywhere.

"Oh wheff," Jay wiped his forehead, "That took a lot more energy than I remembered."

Jay's dragon rumbled, a purring sound that rocked the whole tomb.

"Hey boy," Jay said stroking the dragon's muzzle, "It's been forever since I last saw you."

The lightning dragon nudged Jay affectionately the purring sound getting louder.

"Why couldn't you do that, to begin with," Ronin asked.

"It's a mindset. Morro blocked out chi from flowing so we couldn't use our powers. Energy has to flow for us to use our powers. This is happiest I've been in months. That's the short explanation, anyways." Jay smiled, mounting his dragon, " You coming?"

"I stick mostly to flying ships." Robin nervously replied.

"Aw, it's not that bad," Jay said offering him a hand, "But, I could always leave you until some flying ship happens to come through."

Ronin hesitantly grabbed Jay's hand and Jay hefted him up onto the dragon.

"Where do I hold?" Ronin asked the spines that embroidered the dragons back not providing him any grip.

"Hold onto my waist." Jay winked.

Ronin sighed but quickly grabbed onto Jay as the dragon started to move.

Jay laughed, echoed by a snuffling sound made by the dragon.

"Let's go," Jay said, giving the reins a little tug.

The dragon soared upwards, bracing itself as it smashed through the sealed opening of the tomb. They soared into the chilly sky, shivering.

"Do you know where your friends are?" Ronin asked.

"Brothers." Jay corrected, "And no. But we made it out of the tomb, and that's step one."

"Oh boy." Ronin said through chattering teeth, "Can you make some coats with that power of yours?"

"How do you think my powers work?" Jay asked.

"It was worth a shot." Ronin said.

* * *

"Can't beat me! I still the reigning champion!" Cole declared, waving his controller in the air.

Kai grumbled, leaning his head on his hand.

"Wow," Lloyd said, "Need some ice from those burns? Cause you just got smoked!"

"Here," Kai said, handing over the controller to Lloyd, "And no more fire puns either."

Smiling, Lloyd snatched the controller and prepared to face off Cole.

"Ohh. Cole's so going to win."

"No way," Lloyd said, smashing buttons in the controllers furiously.

"Oh yes, way," Cole said.

"But I think I'm better than Cole."

"No way Kai! I just whooped your butt!" Cole replied, leaning in closer to the screen.

"What I'm-" Kai said, dragging his eyes off the screen to spare a glance at the speaker.

Stunned silence filled the room, obviously missed by the gaming boys, who were too busy trying to beat each other into the ground.

"Are you just gonna stare at me or what?" Jay smiled.

Kai gave him a goofy grin that was too big for his face and pulled him into a tight hug, lifting him off the ground.

"Ack! Air!" Jay coughed.

"Jay?!" Lloyd and Cole said, finally noticing him.

"I've missed you guys so much," Jay said, pulling them into a hug.

"What!?" Lloyd gasped, "How-how did you even get here?!"

"Spare the details of how I got away from Morro, I'll tell you that later." Jay added, after the expressions his brothers gave him, "Pixal sensed me in the Bounty's radar and picked me up."

"She sensed you as a person?" Cole asked in disbelief.

"Well, she's been doing a lot of searching lately, and I was much bigger than a person," Jay said.

"Look!" Jay said excitedly.

Everyone was immediately pushed to the sides of the wall, except Cole, as an element dragon filled the entire space of the room.

"That's cool, but can you not do that inside?" Kai asked voice muffled since his face pressed into the wall.

"Sorry," Jay apologized and with a scatter of dispersing energy, the dragon disappeared.

"Thanks," Kai said.

"How did you get your power back, none the less summon your dragon?" Cole asked in disbelief.

"I'll explain that later too," Jay said.

"You seem to have a lot of explaining to do." Sensei Wu said, appearing behind them.

"I've missed you too," Jay said, hugging his Sensei.

"Aw sweet!" Lloyd said, trying out his electric powers, supported by Jay's. He tried to use his ice powers, but nothing happened.

It hit Lloyd. Jay didn't bring Zane. The nindroid wasn't usually quiet as always, he just wasn't here.

"What's wrong?" Kai asked, seeing Lloyd's stricken face.

"Where's Zane?" Lloyd asked, pushing past Jay.

"He- he didn't make it," Jay said softly. The happiness of being reunited slowly melting away.

They didn't get time to think about before, Nya's voice rose from the kitchen.

"Get away from me! Guys! Help!" Nya shouted, as the clamor of falling pots and pans ringed in the Bounty.

All 4 of them raced to the kitchen. Wondering what was happening now.


	9. Chapter 9

Morro was asleep, dozing against the side of the cavern. He slept, not because he needed it, but it provided his mind a rest from the worldly problems and stresses he dealt with now-a-day.

Zane, however, couldn't sleep in his current form. But instead, he had figured something else out.

He traced his figure in the dirt, feeling the course rocks and pebbles. He could feel. And he had figured out how and why he could do this.

When Morro had possessed him, instead of him forcefully pushing his soul out of the control, he had let him. And in this little bit of room, Zane found that he could control his own body while Morro wasn't in control. The only time he wasn't, was when he was in deep sleep. Something that happened at most for an hour or two.

He couldn't open his eyes, he knew that would wake Morro, and he would have to provide an answer to why his eyes were open.

Morro started to wake, his thought patterns starting to shake, his dream ending.

With a yawn, he rose from his nap, blinking as the color and light flooded the dark.

"Morning sunshine," Zane called.

"What time is it?" Morro asked.

"Can't you so that yourself?" Zane asked.

"I could, but I decided I could use you seeing that you made yourself a side program. Ya don't think I didn't notice that." Morro said.

"3:47 pm," Zane said, concealing his shock.

Morro slid out of his sleeping bag, rolling it into a tight roll and tucking it under his arm.

"Ok," Morro said, "I want your honest answer. Should I make Bansha my second in command?"

Zane thought the question over, "Well, Soul Archer is more skillfully capable, but Bansha is more reliable, not to mention the fact that she is better at strategies. I would choose Bansha. And this doesn't mean I'm helping you."

"Ok." Morro said, "And you should be helping me. You're a side program. Isn't that your purpose?"

"I am not a tool." Zane hissed.

"Sure you're not, robot." Morro said sarcastically, "You're a machine. And machines were built to benefit man."

Zane quietly accepted that fact, having no real evidence against that.

"Easier once you accept that," Morro added.

"Bansha!" Morro hollered.

"It's poor manners to yell from room to room," Zane stated.

"The dead don't have manners," Morro replied.

"No wonder no-one likes you," Zane said.

Morro sighed and pushed Zane down, out of his subconscious.

He waited a couple of minutes but Bansha didn't arrive. So he decided to reach out to her in a different way.

"Soul Archer?" Morro called.

"Yes?" Soul Archer groaned.

"Can you please tell Bansha to come here?" He asked.

Soul Archer begrudgingly obliged, muttering under his breath.

"Yes?" Bansha said, coming in after a few minutes of more waiting.

"I have thought it over with some consideration, and..." Morro said, dramatically pausing.

"You're now my second in command," Morro said.

Bansha smiled, one of the happiest looks Morro has ever seen her have. Nothing made Bansha happier than moving up ranks.

"Is everything ready to go yet?" Morro asked.

"Yes. We are ready to go when you are." Bansha said.

"And please." Morro added, "Tell Soul Archer the news."

"Yes, sir." Bansha grinned.

Morro dragged Zane into his subconscious, needing his assistance.

The screen around Zane glitched, a reflection of his unstableness. He was almost unseeable through all the error signs, bits of code, and white and gray slash that danced around him.

"Great your back," Morro said.

Zane said nothing, the glitching around the screen starting to subside. However, it didn't fully disappear, white and gray lines still danced around him, something that Morro found fairly annoying. What did disappear was a good section of his legs.


	10. Chapter 10

**By the way, I posted two chapters at once, so just to let you know.**

What was left of his legs were broken bits of code, jaggedly cut and uneven. One cut off at his knees the other cut off around his mid shin.

"Woah, what happened?" Morro asked, "That looks terrible. Worse than Soul Archer."

"I don't know." Zane said, tearing up, "I'm... I just don't know."

He floated around aimlessly, what was left of his legs moving back and forth but not touching the ground.

"Well, what did you do?" Morro asked.

"Well, I waited. And waited some more." Zane said, "And then I got tired of waiting. And then... look, I don't want to talk about this."

The glitching got worse as Zane sank to the ground, head in hands.

"I want to know," Morro said, finding this situation oddly interesting.

"I suppose if I don't tell you, you're going to put me back down there?" Zane assumed.

"You know me too well." Morro smiled.

"Fine. Well, I started to call for you, hoping you would hear me. I keep calling and calling..." Zane shuttered, the painfulness of the experience haunting him. The glitching got worse, error codes started to pop up around him.

"Woah!" Morro said, "Calm down! Your glitches are starting to move out of the box and they are really annoying."

Zane took a deep breath and the glitching started to fade again, slowly disappearing one by one, until he was left back with his decoded legs and white and gray lines.

"You going to finish or what?" Morro asked insensitively.

"You lack of sympathy is really motivating." Zane stated, "Well, I started yelling, screaming even. Someone would hear me, you would hear me right? You wouldn't leave me down there forever, right? And then... And that's when it happened. The first white line crossed into my vision. And then it just got worse, until part of my legs started to blink and then slowly broke away, back into code. And now, I'm stuck like this."

"Wow, this is so interesting." Morro stated, "How long did you think you were down there?"

"Maybe a... I don't know, a month? Time has no meaning down there." Zane said, flopping down on his back, feeling like numb. This was too much for him. And he thought being possessed by a ghost, having his emotions turned off, and being possessed again was too much.

"I wonder if this is related to your emotions, if you even have any," Morro added as an afterthought.

"Anyways, I need you to calculate what is better attack the ninja or go for the realm crystal," Morro said.

Morro was asking him to plot against his teammates.

"Give me an untruthful answer or not at all and I will leave you down there for a whole day, I promise you," Morro said.

"Attack the ninja," Zane said, sorrowfully, staring blankly into the dark sky.

"Why?" Morro asked.

"Because..." Zane said, realizing how he would have to tell him the truth about them knowing where the tomb was.

"They won't follow you if they are too busy tending to their wounded." He made up quickly.

"Good boy, Zane. See that wasn't so hard." Morro said.

"I am not a dog," Zane muttered under his breath.

"You're right. You're even less than one." Morro shot back.


	11. Chapter 11

**And off we go! Wow, there was such a big response to the last chapter! Thanks!**

 **Crossbow 76** **\- So technically I cheated, they were actually one big chapter, but I decided to break them up into two much smaller chapters because I liked the way it broke up. So then I just posted both of them.**

 **RJ** **-Ya, I try to make Morro a likable character who seems realistic enough, but also hateable so, you have a reasonable cause to hating and why he is doing all this stuff.**

 **ShinxLovesNinjago** **-All that part that was in caps (minus the smiling part), is how I feel when I get a math test. I am never ready for a math test not matter how much I study.**

 **StoriesAreMagic** **-I know, I don't know how I feel about making my favorite characters go through hell. I mean the show does it to the main characters anyways, so I think I'm justified. Lloyd has to fight his father (Lloyd, I am your father), I mean Zane gets blown to pieces, Nya dies! Cole dies and then still exists on the earth, Sensei Wu lost his, like, everyone to being evil or death, etc.**

 **Guest** **-I read your comment and I was going to write a reply until I realized there was no distinction between the two or more guests comments and I'm too lazy to write out the comment. Have an online sticker.**

* * *

Kai was the first to get to the kitchen. He barreled into the room and socked the attacker.

"Ouch!" Ronin yelped, hand over his eye as he tripped over his own feet and flopped onto the floor, "OWw, I'm going to get a black eye from both you and Nya."

"That's what you get for showing your face around here you dirty traitor," Kai growled.

"Hey!" Jay said, running into the room, followed by the others.

"What?!" Kai protested.

"Don't attack Ronin. He's not that bad." Jay said, helping him off of the floor.

"Not that bad?" Ronin said, raising an eyebrow, his eye already developing a purple ring around it and a second bruise forming underneath it.

"Don't push your luck," Kai growled.

"Relax, it was a joke." Jay sighed.

"So, we are supposed to believe that Ronin is on our side?" Cole asked, "Is that the joke?"

"You know it's not," Jay said.

"Explain," Lloyd said, not really believing Ronin was their friend but giving Jay a chance.

"Well, we were both in the locked in the same tomb together. And well, after being stuck there for awhile, I forgave him. Of course, he explained his side of the story." Jay said.

"His side of the story could be baloney! He practically sells lies to people!" Kai said.

"If Jay trusts him, then I trust him," Nya said, giving Jay a break.

"Thanks, Nya." Ronin smiled.

"Don't think that you're forgiven," Nya replied, leaving the room.

Ronin's eyes dropped to the floor as he watched Nya leave.

* * *

A grappling hook latched onto one of the back tail fins of the Bounty. A couple seconds passed as the metal cable waved in the wind. Finally, the rope went taught and Morro shot up the side of the Bounty allowing the mechanisms of the grappling hook to pull him up. He leisurely yawned while the cord retracted. When he got to the side of the Bounty, plates in the palms of Zane's hands retracted as they were replaced with ones that hard sharp spikes on them. Morro dug them into the wood of the Bounty and started to climb the rest of the way.

Bansha and Soul Archer followed him up, peering over the side of the Bounty.

"It's clear," Bansha stated.

"Great," Morro said, climbing over the side of the Bounty, "These are some pretty neat tools."

"Ya, don't get used to it," Zane commented.

"Haha, you have such a great sense of humor." Morro said, "Now, what's the most effective way to plan this attack?"

"Like I'd tell you." Zane huffed.

"What if I-"

"Fine, go into the Bounty's control room and shut the motors down," Zane grumbled.

"Great, where is it?" Morro asked.

"To the right and into the room on the deck," Zane said.

Morro walked into the control room looking around. He grinned as he placed his hands on the keys.

"Hey-" Pixal said, her smiling face turned to a frown when she caught a glance at Zane.

The base of the control plane, turned red as she remotely locked everything. Warning sirens and lights rang out of over the Bounty.

"What!?" Morro said, withdrawing his hands from the panel as if he was touching something hot, "You lied to me!"

"I didn't lie. How was I supposed to know this would happen?" Zane shrugged innocently.

"You knew that this was going to happen, just like this is," Morro said, ripping Zane out of his subconscious.

"Great, you put too much trust in that machine." Soul Archer growled.

"If you think you can just waltz onto this ship, in my boyfriend's body nonetheless, and sneak attack us?" Pixal said.

The pounding of footsteps echoed as the team race up the stairs.

"Your boyfriend? Wow, Zane. Fine, I expected a bit of a fight anyways," Morro said, drawing his two ghastly swords.

"Morro!" Kai growled.

The team pulled their aeroblades from their sheathes.

"Bansha, Soul Archer," Morro commanded.

The two ghosts dispersed. Bansha dove into the dragon on the front of the Bounty, Soul Archer followed suit. It shuttered and ripped off the front, and pulled itself on the deck of the bounty.

"That is one big dragon..." Jay said, eyes widening.

"Hehe," The ghost dragon growled, "This is going to hurt. For you."

"Let's get Morro," Cole said, pointing to Kai, and Sensei Wu, "And the rest of you, get the dragon."

"Hey, Soul Archer!" Jay teased, "Guess who managed to escape! Come get me you mangy dog!"

Electricity crackled as Jay's dragon tackled the Bounty dragon, throwing it close to the edge of the Bounty.

"Going to have to do better than that!" The Bounty dragon growled, rubbing off some of the splintering wood.

Kai threw his aeroblade, which Morro ducked. He caught it on its return and swung at Morro.

"Morro, stop this silly goal," Sensei Wu said.

"Silly goal?! Silly goal!? Was my quest to be the green ninja just another silly goal too?!" Morro roared, "I come back and you have five new replacements."

Morro brought his swords down on Sensei Wu's bow stuff, knocking it from his hands. Sensei Wu ducked Morro's swords and swept his legs out from under him.

"You never protected your legs." Sensei Wu sighed, "I always told you that your legs were just as important as you head, as without either one of them, you can't stand."

Kai put his foot on top of Morro's chest pinning him to the ground. Morro growled dangerously, watching as Kai kicked his swords further away from him.

"Haha!" Morro laughed, "You think you've won!"

He watched Jay, Nya, and Misako dodge a swipe from the Bounty dragon before digging their weapons into the already splintering wood, his eyes glittered dangerously.

"Morro, let us help you. I never got to," Sensei Wu said.

"Help me?" Morro said and Kai could catch a glimpse of the old him when he was younger and faithful to his Sensei, desperate to be the hero in the story, desperate to be the chosen one. Just as quickly as he had seen it, it disappeared.

"You can't help me." Morro spat, "You can't even save your student who is trapped in my head."

"What are you doing to him?" Kai threatened.

"Oh, nothing." Morro said, "Soul Archer! Bansha!"

The Bounty dragon threw itself from Jay's dragon's grasp, several swords, and various weapons sticking from its shoulders and legs. It floundered over and lifted Morro delicately in its talons, causing Kai leaped out of the way to avoid being squashed. Morro clambered up to the top of Bounty dragon, perching on the top of his shoulder blade.

"Nothing besides, unraveling his code. Maybe Cole could teach him a lesson in floating because he needs it. I wonder how much is left of him now." Morro taunted, "This isn't over."

With that the front of their ship, in the form of the Bounty's dragon, leaped off of the Bounty, taking Morro with it. The team ran to the edge of the Bounty, watching them land on the ground and take off, the dragon limping on its left side.

"He's so stubborn, always wanting to be 'independent', he can't accept help even when he needs it the most." Sensei Wu sighed, "He's a troubled one."

"You think?!" Kai groaned.


	12. Chapter 12

**BAM! Another chapter done. Man, finals and all the AP tests are coming up! When did this year end so quickly! Anybody else feel that time flies, especially when you're writing Ninjago fanfictions?**

 **StoriesAreMagic-** **Thank you so much for finding that typo. My computer does a weird thing sometimes when I save it, it randomly deletes one word and makes a copy of half the sentence after it and slaps it right in there. Don't ask me why.**

 **SweetHeart114-** **Kai just stood there as his battle with Morro was abruptly interrupted by a random girl/kid/(insert you in here ;-;) popping into existence right in front of him and starting to beat the living dirt out of Morro. " _ANOTHER ELEMENTAL MASTER?!"_**

 **RJ-** **Me too. I only have sisters.**

* * *

"That was humiliating." Morro sighed, laying on the back of the Bounty dragon, "You should ditching this piece of junk. It's only slowing us down."

"Fine." The Bounty's dragon collapsed into a clutter of wood as the two ghosts floated from the remains.

"Let's go," Morro said.

He attempted to summon his dragon but found he couldn't.

"Don't tell me that Zane has to be present for me to use his powers," Morro grumbled.

The ghosts shrugged.

"Whatever," Morro said.

"Hey," Zane said, appearing on the screen.

"Hmm, no glitches?" Morro asked.

"Nope, still haven't gotten my legs back though." Zane casually replied, gesturing to where the bottom of his legs should be.

"You're not, upset?" Morro asked.

"Why not? I take it you lost." Zane said, "And you left a dent in my chest. Honestly, I would be angry if my self-repairs wouldn't fix that up first."

Morro was just baffled at how calm Zane was acting, not at all what he was expecting.

"You're not-" Morro repeated.

"Yes, I know I'm not. Big surprise." Zane said, "And before you ask me how, I'm not going to tell you."

"Sure," Morro aloofly said, "I don't need you, only your powers. By the way, your girlfriend said hi."

Hurt flashed clearly over Zane's face. He couldn't help but ask Morro a question.

"How is she?" Zane said softly.

"Wow, she really must hate you. I mean she didn't even say hi to you. She just alerted all of the ninja, not even a glance towards you." Morro sneered.

"I deserve it. I really have been a terrible boyfriend." Zane said melancholily.

"Love is a fickle thing." Morro said, "It makes you think differently than you normally would. It makes you feel and act differently. It can be just as blinding as anger."

Morro sighed and summoned his dragon. However, it flopped to the ground, whining pitifully.

"Come on, get up," Morro growled, tugging at the reigns.

The dragon scrabbled uselessly in the dirt, it's clawing leaving deep gashes in the ground.

"What now?" Morro said.

"Uh, Morro?" Bansha called.

"What is it?" Morro sighed.

"Your dragon doesn't have any back legs," Bansha said.

Morro ran around to the back, and sure enough, his dragon didn't have any back legs.

"What?" Morro said, again.

"Oh, hmm, I suppose that's because I don't have any legs." Zane said, connected the dots, "It is my power and if I disappear, then you don't have any. You may control my body, but my power is connected to my soul."

Morro wanted to scream. Everything had turned so down hill from here. And Zane's witty remarks weren't helping at the least bit.

"No matter," Morro said, climbing back onto his dragon, "He still has wings, and that's all it needs to fly."

"That's kinda cruel," Zane said sadly, watching the dragon try to lift itself off the ground.

"Up!" Morro commanded.

The dragon gave a pitiful whine and flapped its wings, however, it only seemed to hit them on the ground.

"Must I do everything myself?" Morro asked, using his wind powers to lift the dragon into the air.

Once in the air, the dragon was finally able to fly.

"Where to Morro?" Bansha asked.

"The tomb of the first Spinjitsu master," Morro smiled.

* * *

 **(About 30 minutes back)**

Zane had been back in his black penitentiary, trapped once more. He nervously glanced at his legs, hoping they weren't unraveling. They weren't to his relief. Zane would rather be down here than up there and being a traitor to his brothers. He imagined the last glance he had before being ripped down here. Pixal. Although she looked extremely pissed off and disapproving. Disapproving of him...And Morro.

He should have promised to come back. Maybe then he would have come back. Maybe then he wouldn't have been here. But there was no use debating 'what-if's', he was here and there was nothing that he could do about it.

Zane sighed and continued wandering through the dreary, sightless area. Maybe if there was something, anything to do he wouldn't be so bored. More unless if's. He sat down, folded his legs under him, took a deep breath, put the tips of his thumbs together, and closed his eyes. Meditating was great for the first day or two. But he found, while down here, that even he a limit to meditation. He gathered his thoughts together and sifted through them as a child would with sand and shells.

That was when he finally stumbled upon an idea. The falcon wasn't under Morro's control right? The falcon was still connected to him, they were made from almost exactly the same parts. He tried to remember how to connect to the falcon's vision but it was much harder down here. He finally managed, the falcon's view taking over the blankness of his. There wasn't much, the falcon was still in the cave, resting in a crevice.

"Hey old friend _,"_ Zane said aloud to the bird.

The bird squawked, fluttering its wings and preening them.

"Are you still stuck in the cave?" Zane continued, hoping the bird could hear him.

The bird clacked its beak impatiently, and Zane took that as a yes.

" _I can help him! I know the way out. I was there when Morro exited the cave!"_ Zane thought hopefully.

"Falcon, I know how to get out of the cave, follow my instructions," Zane said.

The falcon shook its wings opening them for a first time in a while.

"Okay," Zane said, "Now fly into the tunnel on the left."

The falcon soared into the air and Zane got the wonderful sight of flying that he always loved. He felt connected to the falcon in the way that he did when he was in his presence, a comfortable and familiar sense.

"Take the further right...the second to the left...sharp turn into the tunnel directly on your left...straight into the next tunnel...and you're free!" Zane said, watch the sight of the cave drop away.

"Now quickly back to the Bounty!" Zane cheered.

He startled out of his meditation as he felt a cramp in his neck.

"Ow! How long have I been sitting here." Zane mumbled to himself, shifting into a different position, "My gears would have gotten locked up if I had any."

He pressed his fingers together again and connected to the falcon once more.

* * *

 **If you liked this, you should go read the one-shot that I just wrote. Well, just wrote before this. Probably a day or two before I post this.**


	13. Chapter 13

**Knock, knock... I suck at writing intros. Anyways, sorry for disappearing for forever. AP Government Exams are coming and I was having trouble wording this one properly. So hopefully its not too bad.**

* * *

Zane was greeted by the same image that he had left. Not even a single second had passed. The bird continued to flap, soaring in the sky.

He watched the scenery as the bird continued to flap, but he couldn't help but hate the feeling of being only able to watch. Even though it was his friend and even was doing what he wanted. He was tired of watching.

Finally, the bird landed on the deck of the Bounty, bursting into a beautiful, but really loud song. It kinda actually sounded more like a siren now that he thought about it.

"Ugh, what is that?" Kai asked wandering onto the Bounty's deck.

The falcon dropped from its perch and landed on Kai's shoulder.

"Ow!" Kai shrieked.

Zane winced remembering that the falcon did indeed have sharp talons like a real bird, probably even sharper. He just didn't feel it as much since he was made of titanium.

"Oh, hello falcon," Kai said, "it's been a long time since we've seen you and I'm happy you're back, but can you perch somewhere that's not my shoulder?"

Falcon dropped onto the floor and looked expectantly at Kai. Kai looked at the bird back.

"Okay," Kai said kneeling down beside the bird, "I'm not too good with birds, but what do you got for us?"

He reached and gingerly pet the top of the birds head.

"Falcon, tell Kai that I hope he's okay from the attack and that Morro's heading to the tomb right now," Zane said.

The falcon blinked before sending a blue hologram with his message written on it. Zane watched Kai's eyes glide back and forth as he read the message.

"Zane? Man, you always find a way back to us somehow. I don't know how you do it." Kai laughed.

"We're all doing okay. We whooped Morro's butt! Didn't you see it? The guys are going to flip when they see you! Let me go get them!" Kai said racing off.

The falcon, however, decided that he didn't want to stay. At least not on the ground. To Zane's relief, the falcon decided that it wanted to perch on the bow of the ship instead.

Kai, accompanied by whoever could quickly be gathered, Jay, Cole, Lloyd, arrive back in deck looking around. His surprised look on his face was easily seen from up there when he couldn't find the falcon.

"Are you sure that you hadn't had too much punch?" Jay laughed.

"No way." Kai said, "I swear-"

The falcon took now as an opportune time to swoop down from the bow and land on the deck.

"There!" Kai exclaimed proudly.

"Wow falcon, we haven't seen you since. Well, since the caves." Jay said.

Falcon chirped a hello before delivering Zane's next message.

 _"I didn't get to see the battle. I noticed the wood dragon carving on the front is gone. What happened?"_

"You didn't get to see?" Jay said, "what do you mean you didn't get to see?"

A second passed as the message was sent from him to the falcon.

 _"I am trapped down here. Morro gets to choose if I get to see or not."_

"Down where?" Cole asked.

 _"Umm? My best guess my feet? I really don't know. Definitely not in the main circuitry."_

"Morro said something about something happening to you. Something about breaking down into bits of code?" Lloyd asked, peering at him, "what's going on?"

 _"Wow, they cut to the chase real fast. Jeez, I really don't want to talk about this. Umm, what should I tell them? I could tell them that I'm okay, that technically isn't a lie. Just stretching the truth. I don't think they will buy it though. They aren't going to like it either way."_

Unfortunately, the falcon had taken his thought and delivered it for all to see what he was saying.

Zane mentally facepalmed, when he saw the message blink in front of them and the looks on his brother's faces as they read it.

 _"Whoops, that got delivered. They don't look happy. I guess I should probably tell them now."_

Zane winced as he couldn't stop his runaway thoughts and they got displayed by the falcon for all to see. His best guess of why the falcon was doing this was because he was little more than a mere program, it was getting his speech and thoughts mixed up and combined into one. Oh well, he would have to take the good with the bad.

"Zane," Jay said, warningly, "What's going on?"

 _"Should I tell them the whole thing or a shortened version. I think I'll tell them the shortened version. I really don't feel comfortable talking about this either way, but it's too late now. "_

"We want the long version, Zane. Don't feel bad, we're your brothers. We'd always be by your side." Cole said.

 _"Okay..."_

They waited patiently for Zane response.

 _"It probably would be easier if I just show them."_ Zane's thought came through.

 _"If I could just find a way... maybe I could make a digital photo."_

Zane glanced down at his legs and then thought of the picture of he looked like. It was too hard being a machine and all, who also happened to know his complete blueprints. Praying that it would work he waited for the message to go through.

With a flicker, he was standing there, a blue hologram of himself. He wasn't smiling, he wasn't frowning, he just looked...tired.

"Wow," Jay said, reaching for the hologram like it was something tangible.

It really did look worse than it felt. It looked like he was disintegrating. He really didn't feel any pain though. It was just there. He couldn't feel his legs.

"How did this happen?" Lloyd exclaimed.

"What did Morro do?" Kai growled.

 _"It was partly Morro, time passes really slowly down here. Based on time referencing. A minute is 3 days down here. And being down here for so long in nothing is kinda...hard to deal with."_

"It's hard knowing that your suffering and we can't do anything but watch." Cole said, sadly, "I just really wish I could do something for you. I want to help, I want to be a great team leader but, I just can't."

 _"I've been doing a lot of hurting to other people. That's all I've been doing recently. God, I wish they would just forget about me. Or just care a little less. Maybe then it wouldn't hurt them so much. It hurts knowing I'm hurting them."_

"Zane, that's no way to think," Kai said, sounding like he was scolding a child.

 _"I wish they would stop hearing my thoughts. This is getting annoying. It keeps putting me in situations like these. I gotta be more careful."_

"You know," Jay said, "I kinda like hearing your thoughts. You don't really talk about these things. You tend to keep them to yourself. It's nice to finally hear them. It's nice to know what's bothering you. You always push them off to the side and make them seem not like a big deal. It always makes me feel a little in the dark."

 _"Oh, well, I can't do anything about it so read away."_


	14. Chapter 14

**Here's a kinda short chapter. Not the longest. Not the shortest. I hope you enjoy it regardless.**

 **Zaptrap - _Yup I'm back! BRAINS! Whelp, mostly back. Back from the dead._**

 **Carmine DeVil - _Here's some Morro fluff for you. I view him as a character who's not afraid of being evil but still wants to be the hero of the story._**

Zane conversation with his brothers left him feeling in high spirits again as he watched Morro fly over the sea. It obviously bugged him to see his main technique of getting Zane to do things to be rendered helpless. They were soaring towards the tomb of the first spinjitsu master, but Zane knew that his brothers were going to get there first.

Zane talked and enjoyed the company of his brothers until Morro had called him to be able to summon his energy dragon.

"So," Morro said to him getting bored of chatting with his ghost companions, "care to tell me a story?"

"What, are you a child?" Zane asked surprised by this request.

"Technically yes. I died pretty young. And I'm bored." Morro replied.

Zane rolled the idea around in his mind before deciding that it couldn't be that bad.

"If I tell you a story. You have to tell me one." Zane said.

"Fine," Morro grumbled.

"Once upon a time-" Zane started.

"No, not a fairy tale. A story about you." Morro told him.

"Why?" Zane asked suspiciously.

"No reason in general." Morro said causally, "But I think they're more interesting."

"Once upon a time, there was a nindroid named Zane." Zane started, "He was happy living with his brothers, fighting crime, and opening up a tea shop. But then one day, an annoying ghost named Morro, decided to possess him."

"Love the subtlety," Morro commented.

"He took him away from everyone and everything Zane loved." Zane sighed, "He took him away from his brothers, his Sensei, his love. And left him to be trapped in his mind. And so Zane was stuck there, trying to do everything he could to help his brothers, to help save them and himself. He was desperate to get back to them and to save the world. And doesn't expect Morro to ever understand that."

Zane stopped abruptly, leaving him and Morro in silence.

"The, mortal things only drag you down." Morro sighed, "That was a terrible story but, time to keep my side of the bargain. Once upon a time, there was a young boy named Morro. Morro had a rough start, the world had not been kind to him. He was an orphan who never made it to an orphanage. So he lived his life trying to scrounge up his next meals.

One day he was found by a kind old man named Sensei Wu. Sensei Wu treated him with such a kindness and for so long, something Morro wasn't used too. Sensei Wu trained him in the art of ninjutsu. And it wasn't long before he discovered he had the power of the wind. After that, Morro was told that if he worked hard enough he had the potential of being the green ninja. A hero with the power that was similar to the first spinjitsu master. He believed him, falling head over heels into the belief that if you work hard enough, you can achieve anything.

And so he worked and pushed himself harder and harder. And when the time came, he was offered the golden weapons. But they didn't choose him. They didn't give him a sign. Determined to prove that he could be the green ninja, he set out to find the elusive temple of the first spinjitsu master. He searched and searched until he was into his teens. Where one day he fell down a hole and broke his legs. He had no one in this damned world to help him. But it had never been any different. So there he remained until he starved or bleed out.

And then his soul was offered a chance, join her in the cursed realm and get a chance to go back to the world or dissolve into the abyss, where he would be forgotten, remembered by no one. So he choose to join her in the cursed realm dedicating his soul to her cause. He would wait for his chance. He would wait until he could come back. And this time he was going to make sure that people remembered him, whether they liked it or not."

Morro finished his story, letting his words sink in.

"You talking to the nindroid?" Bansha asked, interrupting the silence.

"No, I'm just going crazy." Morro sarcastically replied.

"Aren't we all," Bansha replied.

"Do you ever wish you didn't take the deal?" Zane asked.

"No." Morro said, "Being evil isn't that bad. But it's like they say. Man doesn't fear death. He fears being forgotten. You should try giving it a try. But they'll never forget you. You have a legacy. You are the hero. But without me, the villain, you'd be nothing."


	15. Chapter 15

**IMPORTANT: So I had just recently watched the Hands before Time right before writing this and I kinda, somehow forgot that Cole was a ghost. So I rewrote the parts that just wouldn't make sense like him swimming. DUUH. Come on brain, work. So some of it seems a little weird that he is so close to the water given what happens to him if he touches it but, I already wrote the next chapters with him in it before realizing. Thanks.**

 **Nagasha _-You know when that person perfectly explains your chapter and even makes you seem ever smarter than you actually are. Congrats you are that Reviewer! *Confetti*_**

 **BraveS3-** _ **Ya. Kinda was harsh. But no one said that the world was easy right, Morro?**_

 **SweetHeart114-** ** _I've got some good things planned with the tomb don't you worry. Good things *laughs maniacally*_**

 **ShinxLovesNinjago-** _ **Me too. You should try having a conversation with someone randomly speaking in third person. It's so funny to see them react. The downside of that is if you do it too much, you accidentally might start talking in third person without even realizing it.**_

* * *

Zane cocked an eyebrow.

"I guess your right." Zane said, "But your morals are very twisted."

"I could say the same about you," Morro replied.

Zane just sighed.

"You know we aren't so different." Morro mused.

"Oh no, not this again," Zane complained.

"No seriously. Use your techy stuff to see I'm right." Morro said, "We both were orphans. For the main part of our life anyways. We both were viewed to be weird by society. We both were found and trained by Sensei Wu. We both had a chance, or kinda a chance to be the green ninja. We both are trained in the art of ninjutsu, spinjitsu, and airjitsu. We both are currently practically immortal. And we both live in this body."

"Live would be a little exaggerated. I'm being held hostage here." Zane said.

"Live. Hostage. Same thing." Morro chided.

"Not really." Zane argued, "But what's your point bringing this up."

"We are so much like each other. We understand so much of what we've been through. We should be always fighting against each other. We should be joined together." Morro advised.

"Great. You're turning good?" Zane sarcastically replied.

Morro almost laughed, "I've worked this hard and I'm almost to my goal. What would make you think that I would turn back now?"

"A sudden change of heart brought on by mutual understanding?" Zane replied.

"That's called a heart attack." Morro laughed.

Zane just rolled his eyes, trying not to be amused.

"We are nearing the tomb." Morro said, looking on his scanner, "We've got an hour or so until we get there."

"Wanna play eye spy?" Morro asked.

"What's gotten into you?" Zane questioned him.

"Look as much as I seem that I spend all of my time trying to murder you and your brothers, unleash doomsday on your realm, torment you, and enslave Ninjago, I'm a human being too. Or at least was. That more than you can say."

"Hey!" Zane exclaimed.

"My point is, is that I'm bored. And I'd do anything not to be." Morro continued.

"Fine. But we are not playing eye spy." Zane said, "That game is boring and overrated. Not to mention we are over the sea. Not much to spy."

"Fine, what game do you want?" Morro grumbled.

"Here," Zane said pulling a digital stack of cards onto his display. "How about a game of black jack?"

"You're going down." Morro agreed.

* * *

The Bounty's dock landed on the sandy bay.

"Are you sure these are the coordinates?" Lloyd asked, looking around.

"Yes," Jay replied pulling the slip of paper from his pocket.

The paper was now soft from being bent and held so much. Creases going up and down its length.

"It must be here somewhere." Cole said, "Look around. It's probably not in plain sight."

The spread out looking all over the island. Nothing.

"It's just. Not here." Kai complained.

"What if it's in the water?" Nya suggested.

"How are we supposed to get down there?" Kai said, exasperated, "Cause I am not swimming."

"You don't have to if I can do this right," Nya replied.

She raised her hands and pulled them down. The water copied her movement, parting and sloshing away.

"Let's go look," Nya suggested.

"Noo thanks," Kai said, backing away.

"Come on. We have to. We can't do this without you. Plus you get wet. I cease to exist. " Cole said grabbing him by the shoulders.

Grumbling, Kai let Cole guide him back to the water.

"Okay. I can do this. Mess up and we're screwed." Nya encouraged herself, feeling the pressure.

Taking a breath, Kai placed a foot on the damp sand. Water sloshed and waved at him a couple feet away. Cole looked at it nervously before following him. Together they walked down the pathway.

"There's a drop," Lloyd called looking down a steep drop.

Jagged rocks broke away and crumbled down below.

Kai startled lightly as Nya let the water close around the back of the group. The water was well over their head. Walls of water threatened to spill over and sweep them all into its watery grasp. The strain of controlling the water was visible one Nya's face, drops of sweat rolled down her forehead.

"I'm going to dive down if you can hold the water back a little bit, then I'll check around," Jay said.

He smiled before diving into the group waited as Jay dive down to the bottom of the sea. Soon Jay's head resurfaced.

"There's a cave down there. It looks like the tomb! It's got the symbol too!" Jay called.

"Let's go!" Lloyd said.

"Nope. I don't do swimming." Kai stated, planting his feet firmly in the sand.

"I'll help you it's not that far right Jay?" Lloyd said shooting a glance at Jay.

"Oh uh ya," Jay said.

"Very convincing," Kai mumbled.

"Come on," Lloyd said grabbing Kai's hand.

He didn't wait for an answer from Kai as he dived into the water, dragging the fire ninja with him.

"You next?" Cole offered to Nya.

"No thanks." Nya said, "I've got the water remember."

A roar shook the sky Surprised they looked up and Morro's dragon could be seen nearing. The dragon fired a green flaming ball at them on sight, which Nya extinguished with a jet of water.

"Go!" Nya yelled, "I'll hold them off!"

"What about-" Cole started.

"Just go. You can't get wet."Nya said, shoot jets of water at the dragon.

"You know what. I'm actually going to go through the rock and get into the cave that way. It's not completely filled with water right?" Cole asked Jay.

"Nope, there's plenty of air and dry land." Jay said, "But don't you think that's going to be a little risky?"

"I'm a sitting duck on a boat in the ocean especially with Morro around. I'd rather risk my chances in there." Cole replied, sinking through the rock and stone.

"Oh boy, this better work. Do you want me to stay?" Jay asked.

"No thanks. Just get there before Morro does." Nya said.

Jay dived back down into the water, he could feel Nya's gentle push of the water helping him shoot down to the bottom quickly. He could see the opening of the cave. He paddled towards it, head breaking the surface of the water.

"I'm dying." Kai coughed, laying on his back.

"No, you're fine," Lloyd assured him, kneeling beside him.

"Where's Nya?" Lloyd asked.

"Morro's here. We have to get going. Nya's holding him off. We need to get through the tomb before he does." Jay sputtered, dragging himself out of the water.

Cole came down through the top of the ceiling floating gently to the sand below.

"What Cole?" Lloyd exclaimed.

"No time to explain let's go," Cole said.

"Where's Nya?" Kai asked.

"Morro's here. We have to get going. Nya's holding him off. We need to get the advantage." Jay sputtered, dragging himself out of the water.

He grabbed Kai's hand and dragged him to his feet.


	16. Chapter 16

**Not my best chapter but I hope it's bearable. I tried to make it better and I think this is the best it's going to get. Not too much happens in this chapter. Just some more advancement in the plot. I really need to make it happen faster. Things are taking a lot longer than I origonally thought. Oh well, more chapters for you guys. Anyways, anyone who does competitive cheerleading and got into the D2 Summit or any other big competition, I hope you did well. Maybe we even crossed paths without even knowing. Or maybe you don't even know about what I'm talking about.**

 **ShinxsLovesNinjago**

 **Haha, good guess, but as you will see in the chapter, nah. It was a good idea though.**

* * *

They ran past a giant statue of the first spinjitzu master standing there in all his glory.

"At least we know we're in the right spot," Lloyd said.

"I am wet and cold," Kai complained.

"There's something written on the statue." Jay pointed out.

"A spinjitsu master can, a spinjitsu master cannot, to move forward, don't look ahead to find his resting spot." Cole read.

"What?" Kai said, "That makes no sense."

"There's a door." Lloyd pointed, "Let's go."

"We better not meet Morro." Kai worried.

"Why?" Jay asked.

"We don't have our aeroblades. We left them on the Bounty remember." Kai explained.

"Oh boy. The odds aren't looking good." Cole said.

They walked through the door, entering into a room with 16 doors. The door slammed shut behind them, leaving them trapped in the room.

"A spinjitsu master can," Cole repeated.

"What does that mean? Can what? Can breathe? Is it something that only a spinjitsu master can do?" Kai exclaimed, annoyed.

"We can't pick the wrong door. It most likely leads to death." Lloyd said.

"Okay, okay. Let's look at the doors." Cole suggested, "Maybe there is a clue."

They spread out inspecting the doors. They felt along the walls looking for clues or trap doors. The only thing that was different about the doors was the symbols that were above each door marking which one was which.

"Nothing," Kai said frustrated.

Suddenly Morro burst through the door. He was dripping wet and looking very annoyed.

"You." Morro growled, "If I hadn't lost my weapons in the water you would have already been dead. Consider it a lucky break. That water ninja almost drowned me."

The team glared at Morro from the other side of the enclosed room.

"Now what is this." Morro mused looking around, not paying the least bit of attention to the team.

Little symbols above each door mark the different ones.

"Zane!" Morro barked, "Calculate a route out of here. Quickest route. No freeways."

Zane's eyes glowed as he scanned the whole room.

"Zane! Don't help him!" Jay called desperately.

"Don't worry." Zane sighed from inside Morro's mind, "It's not like I would help you."

"What about this one," Cole whispered to Lloyd.

He pointed to a door with spinjitsu tornado symbol above it.

"A spinjitsu master can." Lloyd agreed.

Cole reached for the door.

"Wait," Morro warned.

"What?" Cole said, reaching for the door.

"That's not the door," Morro advised.

"Why should we listen to you?" Cole growled.

"One, I am going to assume that if we pick the wrong door, we are all going to end up in a realm of hurt and the tomb will collapse. Two, Zane would never tell me how to get out of here if one of you gets killed." Morro explained, "As much as I hate you. I have to play my cards right."

Kai growled menacingly but didn't dare to instigate a fight in such a small enclosed space that would lead to certain death.

"Zane, I saved your stupid friends tell me," Morro said.

Morro gave a smile of gloating and spun into a spinjitsu tornado.

"There we go," Morro said running through the door that they came in through.

The team braced themselves waiting for the tomb to explode. After finding that nothing happened they tried to follow Morro through the door. It was locked. Kai spun into a tornado and got the same symbol of the door that was locked. He pushed at the door. Nothing.

"Morro's already in there. The tomb must have a time reset or something." Lloyd said.

"Why would Zane betray us!?" Kai asked, "He told Morro, there was no way he was that smart."

"Kai," Jay said gently, "Zane probably told Morro that he would tell him if he stopped Cole from going through the wrong door. Zane, knowing him, promised him. And he had to keep his promise."

"For once could the nindroid have broken his word?" Kai sighed.

A shifting noise was heard and all the doors of the room shuffled.

"What!?" Lloyd said.

"Doesn't matter." Kai huffed, "Let's go."

He spun into a tornado, matched the symbol and ran through the door, the others on his heels. He came to a dead end. He looked around for Morro and found nothing.

"A spinjitsu master cannot." Jay repeated, "Okay. We're still in this."

"The staff of the first spinjitsu master." Lloyd breathed, "It's beautiful."

Indeed it was, the bamboo staff resembling Sensei Wu's but plated with gold, it glinted in the dim light.

"Okay. So there are definitely booby traps." Kai said bouncing lightly on his toes steeling himself to get the staff, "The staff must be the key. So we have to get the staff."

Kai bolted across the floor zig-zagging, traps going off left and right. Kai was lucky to be pulled out of the way of a boulder by a dart that had caught his shirt.

"I think I'm just going to stay here," Kai said, hanging on the wall from his shirt.

"Maybe a spinjitsu master can't, but an airjitsu master can!" Jay said.

Jay's airjitsu almost made it across, but its temporary skills got him just short of the way. He landed on several squares triggering multiple traps. Logs swung down from the ceiling, snakes dropped down, quicksand, and every square Jay stepped on in his attempt to make it back to safety, the more traps he set off and the more tiles fell away.

"Jay!" Cole called. "Just stop!"

Jay stopped dead in his traps avoiding more poison darts.

"Okay, okay." He painted, breathing heavily, "I'm done with spooky tombs and booby traps. I want to go home."

"Don't we all." Kai murmured.

"What's Zane always say?" Cole asked.

"Based on my calculations-" Kai recited.

"No," Cole said.

"Hello my baby, hello my honey, hello my ragtime gal. Send me a kiss by wire!" Lloyd sang.

"Close but not there," Cole answered.

"Ninja never quit! Either that or NINJAGO!" Jay said, "Jeez we say ninjago a lot."

"Bingo." Cole said, " A spinjitsu master cannot. Cannot quit."

Cole looked down the hole of the black tiles.

"We gotta quit," Cole said.

"Easy for you to say. You're already dead." Kai sighed.

"Exactly. That's why I'm going first." Cole smiled jumping down.


	17. Chapter 17

**'Sup guys?! Ya, I know it's been forever. I am sorry about that. I was supposed to post this chapter on Friday before I left to go to a camp thing where no electronics are allowed but I didn't get around to it. And I am super sorry about that. On to the reviews!**

 **Nagasha-** _ **Ya he is. I think that Zane has strong moral standings and doesn't break them under any circumstances.**_

 **ShinxsLovesNinjago-** _ **Ya I know that Morro's a ghost. I was just thinking that Zane's exoskeleton prevents him from getting wet since Zane probably is waterproof so that it doesn't damage his circuitry. Also, when Morro drinks water in the show, he doesn't go poof either. I don't know how that works. I wouldn't put it past me to forget it though since I kinda already forgot that Cole was a ghost for a bit.**_

 **Loki God of** **Evil** **-** _ **Thanks!**_

 **Shyshy072004-** _ **Oh no! Someone get the life support! Another chapter coming your way!**_

 **StoriesAreMagic-** _ **Thanks. I try to match all the death and destruction themes with a little humor so that it doesn't get way too heavy.**_

 **Zaptrap-** _ **Congrats! That's amazing! I usually go to the US Finals also. But this year we didn't.**_

 **SweetHeart114-** _ **Yup, the only thing that can "kill" Cole is water oh and those aeroblades, but other than at not much else is really a threat to him.**_

* * *

The group waited for a second anxiously waiting for a reply from Cole.

"Guys come on down!" Cole's voice floated up.

"Okay," Jay said jumping down.

Lloyd gave Kai a glance and jumped down after him. Kai gave the staff one last look of longing before pulling the dart out of his shirt and letting himself fall into the abyss below after his brothers.

He landed on the floor, not too gracefully, next to Lloyd. He picked himself up and dusted himself off, noting the bruises that were already starting to form on his hands.

"Ow ow ow ow OW!" Jay wailed, clutching his leg, "I think I broke my ankle!"

Jay hadn't had the luxury of landing safely like the others. He had landed awkwardly on his ankle and now he lay crumpled on the ground.

Cole floated over and inspected his foot.

"Really badly twisted but, not broken. You're very lucky." Cole said, "Can you stand?"

"Ya. I think so." Jay said, wincing as he put weight on his ankle, "It just hurts. A little."

"A little?" Kai questioned, noticing the evident pain on Jay's face and the way he was lopsidedly standing.

"Okay. A lot." Jay admitted through gritted teeth.

"Here, lean on me," Lloyd said, walking to his brother's side.

"Thanks," Jay gratefully accepted, wrapping his arm around Lloyd's shoulder.

"Now be careful. The clue states that 'to move forward, don't look ahead to find his resting spot.'" Cole said.

"Why do they always have to put some complicated riddle!" Jay said.

"Because if they didn't, then everyone would be able to find it," Lloyd said.

The tripod hobbled on. Cole floating behind them and Kai trailing him glancing over his shoulder in search for Morro.

"It's getting cold," Jay said, teeth chattering.

"It's-" Lloyd said.

He interrupted himself with a shriek as his feet slipped from under him and he slipped out from under Jay sliding down the ice. With a sharp gasp, Jay leaned on his ankle and it gave away from under him. He slipped, landing on his back and flying after Lloyd.

Kai stood at the top, mouth agape, wondering how he could follow his teammates. Luckily, Cole was ready to solve that problem for him. Realizing that they were going down some sort of ice slide, Cole gave Kai a push. Kai swung his arms wildly before slipping after his teammates. With a laugh, Cole sat down and slid after them.

"Woaaah!" Lloyd said, the slide abruptly ending.

He tried to plant his feet and stop himself to no avail. He flew off of it. Landing on the continuation of the slide. With a bump, Jay flew after him, and then Kai, and Cole delicately floating over it and sitting back down on the other side. Further down and down they slid, deeper into the earth. Finally, after twists and turns, they landed in a pile at the end of the slide.

"Ouch," Jay moaned.

Lloyd got up with a completely zoned looking in his eyes. His eyes weren't focusing on anything.

"Lloyd?" Jay questioned, leaning up against the wall to help him attempt to stand up.

Cole flopped out of Lloyd's body and onto the dirt.

"Lloyd, I'm so sorry, it was an accident." Cole stammered hands outstretched towards the Green Ninja.

"It's okay." Lloyd said, holding his head, "Kinda weird having two people in one body though."

"What!?" Kai yelled.

"It was an accident." Cole explained, "When we landed on each other it just kinda happened. I didn't mean to possess him."

"It's okay." Lloyd said, taking a deep breath before adding,"No hard feelings."

"We have to go, even second now Morro could have gotten the Realm Crystal," Jay said.

"Okay," Kai grumbled, continuing.

Lloyd moved back over to help support Jay, who's ankle was turning purple.

"Now I think it's broken," Cole said.

"Great." Jay groaned, "Just put me out of my misery."

"Morro!" Kai called.

"That's not funny," Jay said.

"I think we're in some kind of maze," Cole said looking around.

"So is Morro in the maze too?" Kai asked.

"Probably," Lloyd answered.

Kai walked over to one of the walls which were ice, looking into it.

"Hey, it's me." He said looking at himself.

"What?" Jay said, "Let me see."

Lloyd and Jay walked over to the wall and started at it.

"Nope that's me silly." Jay said looking at himself, "Aw man, I've got crutches. Guess this is broken."

"I've got a bandage around my head," Lloyd said, turning his head, as starting at the whole left side of his face which was covered in linen.

"I'm still looking as gorgeous as ever." Kai laughed.

Cole approached the wall, as the others inspected themselves. Indeed he was there on the wall starting back at himself. A gaping, dripping hole was in his chest. He screamed stepping back from the wall. He rubbed his eyes and looked again. Still, he was there, eternally melting hole in his chest.

"What!" Kai said coming over to him.

"I have a hole in my chest," Cole said, "I think I'm melting away."

"Do you think this is our futures?" Jay asked.

"It can't be." Kai said, "We won't let that happen to you Cole. We won't let that happen to any of us."

"If it is, then it looks like we have a big battle coming up," Lloyd said.

"I've got a broken arm and leg coming in my future." Jay sighed, "I hate casts. They're so itchy."

All of them were standing side by side. Staring at their reflections. Lloyd whirled around leaving Kai to just barely catch Jay.

"Morro." He growled.

"What's wrong Jay." Morro cooed, smiling at the injured ninja, "You should really be in bed. You don't want to make it worse."

Morro kicked one of the icicles, snapping it in half. He caught it, advancing on them, the sharp edge pointed at them.


	18. Chapter 18

**This chapter is pretty early. But since I got pink eye, I've had some time to do some more writing. Anyways, thankfully I will be back in school by tomorrow (from when this is posted).**

 **Loki God Of** **Evil-** _ ***Takes it personally. Rages. Posts mean comments. Rants on facebook and all those other social medias* I'm kidding. I've never broken my ankle before. However, by sister slipped down the stairs and her big butt can down on her's nearly ripping her tendon in half. Let me tell you it got purple so fast and it was purpler than a grape. Along with a 'donut' around her ankle. But you're broken ankle sounds like no fun either. I feel for you.**_

 **Zaptrap-** _ **True, true. But I'm not the only guilty one. Heck, even the Ninjago writers like to torture their characters. Heck Sensei Wu got swallowed alive by a giant snake. Lloyd lost his father who knows how many times. Kai and Nya don't have parents. Nya died. Jay still remembers Nya dying. Cole, Jay, and Nya's love triangle. And those are just some of things that happened to them. XP**_

* * *

Green energy crackled around Lloyd's fingertips.

Zane's scanner flickered over Lloyd before disappearing.

Morro swung the icicle only for it to be shattered by Lloyd. Growling, Morro reached for another one.

"Here." Kai said, leaning Jay against the wall, "Cole make sure nothing happens to him."

The wind was howling furiously, whipping their hair back and forth. Element powers were flying everywhere. The wind was picking up the icicles and hurling them at Lloyd. Lloyd shattered some of them and rolled out of the way of the rest. Kai got rid of the rest of them, melting them into puddles.

"You are fools to think that your petty resistance will stop me from my goal," Morro sneered.

Ice and energy tornados smashed into each other sending them both sliding away from each other. Lloyd struggled to regain his balance on the ice, ice skating never being his bravo. Morro took advantage of this, sending a barrage of icicles to pin Lloyd by his sleeves. Ice immediately enveloped his hands and arms, threatening to suck him into the ice walls.

"Hold on!" Kai called, abandoning his attack to melt the ice.

"And then there were two," Morro said.

The earth rumbled underneath them, shaking the ground. The icy floor split open, cracking and shattering. Morro leaped out of the way, landing deftly on the ground.

Kai and Lloyd were free now too. The three leaped at him, using their 1-3 ratio to an advantage, attacking him at the same time, making it impossible for him to block all of the punches and kicks that were sent his way. He needed to get them away from him, they were all on him at once. He swirled the wind around him pushing the ninja back.

"Don't let him split us up!" Kai yelled over the howling.

Cole dove into the ground, possessing the very ice beneath them.

The ice walls shook before collapsing onto Morro, ending the whirlwind. Cole pulled more icy wall around Morro boxing him in. Morro growled looking up. He wouldn't risk trying to airjitsu out of the box, preferring not to be impaled by the icicles above.

Morro back down and stared into the ice walls. He was not pleased by the image he saw. He saw Zane, sitting in a chair and beaming back at him. His brothers joined his side resting their hands on his shoulders, smiling back at him too.

"No, but that means-" Morro said.

He pounded his fists against the walls, clawing at them, wanting to shatter the image in front of him. Something was cracking inside of him like the ice beneath his feet.

"No! I refuse for this to be my destiny! I refused to lose! You can't tell me what I can or can't do or be!" Morro howled.

"Come on," Cole said, wanting to get away from the terrible noise. "That won't hold him for long."

Lloyd picked up Jay and looked around.

"Which way?" He asked.

"How about down?" Jay said, having been trying to figure out the riddle while the others were fighting.

"Down?" Kai asked.

"Look at the cracks in the ice. There something down there. Don't go forward. We have to go down!" Jay said.

The ground broke away at Cole's command the ice shattering with it. They leaped down into the hole, landing in the tomb of the first spinjitsu master.

"Woah," Cole breathed.

It was beautiful, a crystal blue river running down beside it with a waterfall. Blue glowing lights swirling around the rocks that marked his burial site.

"Eww." Jay commented, "Look his bones are still there. You'd think that the first spinjitsu master would be able to afford a coffin."

"The crystal!" Lloyd said, "Kai get it."

"Ugh. Why can't Cole?" Kai complained, but still reached for the realm crystal.

Kai wasn't too thrilled to poke around a dead guys corpse to pull the crystal out that sat in the middle of his chest, wedged between two ribs. None the less he pulled it out.

He almost immediately screamed, shaking uncontrollably.

"What!? What's wrong!?" Lloyd asked, terrified.

"Nothing." Kai laughed, "I just thought something exciting needed to happen after all this build up."

Lloyd was close to having a heart attack. If he wasn't holding Jay he would have sunk to the ground and lay there for a moment until he could breath again.

"Not funny. Not funny at all." He said, "Now let's get out of here."

"Not so fast." Morro said, landing on a rocky outcropping, "Give me the crystal or the nindroid gets it."

Morro dropped Zane at his feet, who lay there in the dirt.

"Zane! Get out of there!" Jay called.

"I-I can't." Zane said, "My legs. They're not working."

Zane pushed himself up using his arms but his legs still lay splayed out around him on the ground. He sniffed, his eyes looking watery. He blinked quickly a couple of times, trying to clear his eyes. Zane was about to cry, Zane never cried. Except for the time, Pixal almost died when they shut the power off.

"They're gone," Zane whispered.

"Oh well, what a shame. I broke my toy. Crystal now." Morro demanded hand outstretched.

"Or what?" Kai defiantly asked, clutching the realm crystal to his chest.

"Or I kick him into the river and watch him sail over the waterfall." Morro said, "I don't think I've ever seen someone swim without legs before."

"Fish do. And merpeople." Jay retorted.

"Zane, you never told me you were a merman." Morro laughed.

"What do we do?" Cole asked.

"We give him the realm crystal and he takes over the world, we don't and Zane goes over the waterfall." Jay debated.

"Classic dilemma. We lose someone we love and we help the greater good." Kai sighed.

"Don't give it to him. The life of many isn't worth mine." Zane shouted.

"Here. Give it to me." Lloyd said.

Kai handed the realm crystal to Lloyd, who started to heat it up.

"Fine. Catch." Lloyd said, tossing him the crystal.

Morro caught it, holding it in the glinting light, "Nice try. But ghosts don't burn. Remember. No skin."

Morro pointed to his hand, emphasizing his point.

"And, by the way, I don't like to be double-crossed," Morro said and with a sharp kick sent Zane flying over the side and into the water.


	19. Chapter 19

**A little short but so much happens in this chapter that I thought I would end it. It's not the shortest one, but it is the third shortest. Anyways, since this story is going to come to an end in the near future, but not too near, I have decided to come up with another story. I will probably post it when this ends later since it will be another big story, probably not as big as this one. I've even designed the cover page for it! Which is my new profile picture. Maybe you can attempt to guess what the story is about. Anyways, away with the story.**

 **BraveS3-** _ **Yeeeeeeeeesssss**_

 **Loki God of Evil-** _ **Patch work bruising is its own kind of evil. It just looks so terrible. And yep, it's getting edgy again. In fact, this chapter has a lot of stuff happening.**_

 **Nagasha - _Ya in my story the futures are a lot closer, Jay's as you can probably read, happens first. Each future happens at different times of the story but most at the same time._**

 **Loki-** _ **Yep the hole in Cole's chest is going to be due to water. Just the only thing for me to do is provide a reasonable reason to how Cole didn't just implode like all the other ghosts. It's proving to be very tricky.**_

 **ShinxLovesNinjago-** _ **Yep. Zane has gone through a lot in this story. Sorry, Zane.**_

 **SweetHeart114-** _ **Run Morro! I still need you for the rest of the story! You can't die (again) now!**_

 **RJ-** _ **Oh, Morro is going to do a lot worse than that. This chapter expecially. Morro snapped.**_

* * *

Cole gasped as he saw, Zane fly over the side of the overhanging, swinging his arms.

"Don't worry Zane! I'll catch you!" Cole called running to the ice ninja.

However, Zane phased right through him and landed in the water with a splash. Cole leaped out of the way successfully avoiding the water. Cole still ran after the nindroid, hoping he could do something, anything to help him.

Maybe had Morro thought it over, he wouldn't have made the choice to get rid of his bargaining chip and mortal vessel. However, his anger of betrayal had blinded him once again. Betrayal of a bargain, betrayal of destiny, betrayal of what he deserved. He didn't care what he had to do anymore, he was going to claw his way to his own destiny and nothing was going to stop him.

Opening up a portal, Morro walked through it, appearing from another behind the ninja. He knew how to use the realm crystal to its fullest extent. Countless years of planning of how to get the preeminent out had prepared him for this.

The remaining ninja barely had any time to react to Morro's sudden appearance behind them before he grabbed Kai by the arm and he threw him over into the water sending him tumbling after Zane.

Kai screamed bloody murder at the touch of water and splashing wildly. Uncoordinated legs kicked trying to keep his head above the water, arms grabbing at the water's surface.

"L-Lloyd!" Kai screaming, coughing on a mouthful of water.

"Kai!" Lloyd called, running after him.

Mere seconds had passed and now there were two ninjas in the water and the realm crystal in Morro's hand.

Jay was leaning against the wall, holding onto an icicle to help keep himself up, all the while giving Morro the fiercest face he could muster.

"Jay, where're all your friends?" Morro asked.

"Drowning or trying to save the drowning ones," Jay told him, giving him a pained laugh that told Morro he didn't find it at all funny.

"It was a rhetorical question. You're not supposed to answer." Morro sighed.

He advanced on the lightning ninja, eyeing him down. Lighting cracked at Jay's fingertips but he was still a sitting duck without his leg.

"You might want to look away Jay." Morro sneered, "This is going to hurt."

"God that sounds like something a deranged doctor would say." Jay chuckled, trying to make light of his situation, shifting his weight.

Lightning crackled at Morro but he didn't try to avoid it. Instead, it went right through him, exploding on the wall behind him.

"What a terrible turn of events." Morro smiled, seeming crazier than ever, "You can't touch me. But I can touch you."

Morro let out a chilling laugh, an uncanny smile accompanying it.

"Cole. Lloyd." Jay called uncertainly, hoping that they were close enough to help him.

Too late. Morro had grabbed his arm and thrown him into the air towards the water, similar to how one would throw a discus at the Olympics. He twisted around in the air, miraculously catching a hold of a rock on the ledge that Morro and Zane were previously on.

He clawed at the rocks, digging his fingers into the crevices, breaking a couple fingernails in his attempt to stay on the rock and out of the water. The slight gust of wind made him look up to see Morro land delicately next to him. Morro's eyes glinted with all the evil possibilities he had in mind.

"What did you say you had in the future?" Moro asked him.

Jay gulped, repositioning his hands as he started to slide down. The water rushed below him, the current was strong and would surely wash him away.

"A broken leg and a broken arm in the future? How about we make that the present?" Morro cackled.

Jay had already started to let go, wanting to face the current rather than Morro, when Morro stepped on his hand pinning him down. Jay squeaked as his fingers were smushed into the rocks. For a ghost, Morro was really heavy.

He awkwardly hung there, arm painfully holding up his whole weight, hoping that Cole or Lloyd would hurry up and save him. Seconds lasted a lifetime, each so long and yet so fleeting. _Where were they?_

They never came in time. Morro slammed his other foot's heel down on Jay's arm which broke with a sickening snap. Jay whimpered softly as white pain consumed everything. He couldn't feel Morro step off of his hand, nor the cold water that he splashed into. Just dizzying white pain.

It didn't hurt as much as he had thought it would. _Maybe he had gone into shock?_ Who knew. All he could see as the water carried him down to the waterfall was Morro's smiling face as he disappeared into another portal with the Realm crystal.

* * *

 **You do not know how bad I wanted to write, "Long live the king." in this chapter. I really tried to make it work but it just broke the intensity of the scene. Right in the part where Morro steps on Jay's hand.**


	20. Chapter 20

**Ya, there isn't a lot of dialogue in this chapter. Mostly since it is a Nya centered chapter. She's been needing one for a while in my opinion. She hasn't had one in a while and hasn't been present in the story for a while. But you know what really needs a character centered chapter? Kai.**

 **RJ- _Y_ _ep. After beating the heck out of the ninja he's now going to unleash doomsday on the world._**

 **ShinxLovesNinjago-** _ **That's so crazy that you were watching it right before I had posted the chapter. What are the odds of that?**_

 **SweetHeart114-** _ **Nya's on lifeguard duty.**_

* * *

Nya was about to bolt down into the tomb after the ninja, having sent the two ghosts back to the cursed realm.

It battle had been like a game of battleship. Arrows and jets of water shooting everywhere. Most missing until they hit their target. A huge wave had sunk the ghost's boat, thanks to Nya's handiwork.

However, they were far away from the island that they were at, having to swerve out of the way of the arrows that Soul Archer launched at them.

This turned out to be a blessing in disguise. They were floating near another island, a beautiful one that was filled with fragrant flowers that were in bloom. There was also a gorgeous waterfall, it started about a hundred feet up and ended with the water cascading down below, among some rocks, some smoothed by the water, others sharpened. This created a cloudy mist that rolled around the rocks and bottom of the waterfall not allowing one to completely see the bottom of the waterfall.

She was about to start the motor when she heard a yell for help. She immediately turned to the sound, looking for the source. She scanned the area and found nothing, nobody was in sight. No animal was in sight.

She started the motor when the sun decided to get her attention, blinking off of a reflective surface and shining into her eye. Just then did she realize that Zane was the reflective surface and he was going over the waterfall. Correction, he had gone off the waterfall.

She had to do something and quick, but her brain was frozen in shock and horror. It was only for a second, but that was as long as it could have taken Zane to fall down the waterfall. She pulled her brain into action, pulling the water up to catch the nindroid, who may or may not have fallen and hit the rocks below. She prayed for the nindroid to be alright. She held the pillow of water there for a second, heart racing, its beating pounding in her ears.

She pulled over to the island, racing to the waterfall, fighting through the uncut and untamed foliage that tugged at her as she ran by. She made it to the base of the waterfall, staring up the rippling water that hovered in the air.

She let the water settle back into the lake, swimming out and pulling Zane to the shore. She didn't have time to check him over before Kai's familiar scream pulled her eyes back to the top of the waterfall.

From the way that he was screaming, Nya would have bet that Morro was stabbing him all the way down, or he was freaking out over the water, or about the fact he was going to plummet off the waterfall. She quickly raised the water to catch her brother and the green ninja, who accompanied him down the waterfall.

She let the water rush out, washing them both to the shore, where they lay coughing, soggy hair draped all over their hair and eyes.

Nya couldn't get a break, which was proven as she had to catch Jay who was next over the waterfall. She could barely keep the water together to catch Jay, which after she let Lloyd pull him out of the water while she flopped onto the beach, energy drained from the sudden demanded use of her power. She steadied her breathing and forced herself back into her legs, which were feeling much like jello.

She wobbled her way over to Lloyd who had spotted the Bounty and was making his way with Jay to it. Cole silently came down from the top of the waterfall, staying well away from the water. Nya didn't even have to be close to see the mortified look on his face. He had gone almost pale, although still slightly green, as he landed on the rocks next to them.

Kai was of no help as he stumbled onto the Bounty's deck. Kai was definitely traumatized by his interaction with the water, which was not at all positive.

This left Nya to carry Zane when she was having trouble carrying herself. Cole apologized for not being able to help, muttering something about his uselessness being a ghost before disappearing through the Bounty.

Zane's eyes had white coded lines going across it, a jumbled mess of letters and numbers. He was definitely suffering from some damage. His circuitry as going haywire, sparks were flying everywhere and he kept twitching. Along with the coded eyes, this really freaked her out.

She deposited the nindroid on the deck, opening his chest for a gallon of water to pour out, along with a fish. It flopped uselessly on the deck for a while before Nya was able to get a bowl and dump the fish in there. She was going to let the thing go in the ocean before she realized that a freshwater fish that lived in a lake had no chance of surviving in the saltwater ocean. She resolved to carry it back to its river after she got everything else taken care of.

She made her way to Zane and could tell pretty quickly that she couldn't fix him without Jay's help. Speaking of Jay, his silence unnerved her, he would have definitely said something, anything by now.

"Jay?" Nya asked, "You okay?"

"Ya," Jay mumbled.

"Oh my gosh Jay! You're all bruised up!" Nya cried, as she saw Jay, who look like someone had drawn spots on him with a purple marker.

"That's what happens when you get dragged across the bottom of a river." Jay sighed.

"What's wrong?" Nya asked.

"I blew it." Jay sighed.

"Blew it?" Nya repeated.

"Ya. I was a sitting duck. I couldn't do anything." Jay sighed.

"What do you mean?" Nya asked, crouching down by him.

"I had a broken leg and I still couldn't do anything!" Jay vented, "Complete sitting duck. I couldn't do anything as Morro picked off my teammates and still couldn't do anything when he broke my arm!"

"Let me see," Nya said, motioning for Jay to give her his arm.

Jay sat up and pointed at his arm and leg. Both were purple-blue and were definitely twisted at awkward angles.

"We need to reset the bones back into place," Nya said.

"I need to toughen up," Jay said.

"You had a broken leg!" Nya cried, frustrated.

"So!? Lloyd had a broken leg and he still fought the overlord." Jay justified, "And I can't fend off one ghost."

"Don't be like that. Ghosts are very different from overlords," Nya comforted, "Come on. Now we'll get Misako to help you with that while I see to the others."

She helped Jay to his feet and held him up as he limped to his bedroom.


	21. Chapter 21

**Another chapter that doesn't have a lot a dialogue. At least in the second part. I don't know why the chapters are having so few lately. Maybe because there's a lot of one on one character time.**

 **SweetHeart114-** ** _Yep, they can't seem to not get injured can they? OR at least I think that they hardly sustain any injuries in the cartoon. It's like they don't get black eyes or sprained ankles in the show._**

 **Zaptrap-** _ **Whelp, that's what happens when you get dragged along the bottom of the river. Heck, even Kai's splashing was better swimming than what Jay could do. Then again Kai had all four working limbs. I haven't seen Voltron Legendary Defender, I'll look at it if I can find the time.**_

 **RJ-** ** _I'm trying to steer this story towards the end with no more side things like these. But I mean, unlike the show, if you fight, people get hurt. And if you're fighting against someone who is trying to end the world, you bet you're going to get hurt. I mean in the show they are invincible in that sense._**

 **BraveS3-** _ **Sometimes that happens to me too. It's really annoying, hopefully, you see this one.**_

 **StoriesAreMagic-** _ **Ya, Zane got a little damaged from falling off of the waterfall. Nothing Jay can't fix, right? (Hopefully)**_

* * *

Jay was sleeping, having had to sit through the ordeal of setting his limbs back in place. Something that had to be done without anesthetics since they had none. Unfortunately, this couldn't wait. His leg was losing circulation fast and they were afraid he was going to loose the whole thing. Luckily for Jay, he had passed out after they had set his leg back in place so he didn't have to suffer through his arm.

Lloyd was sitting with Kai, who was drinking hot tea. Kai had settled down a bit but never wanted to see another body of water for as long as he lived. Which kinda meant that he wasn't going to go near any of the windows until they finished flying over the sea.

Cole was laying sitting atop his bunk bed, also taking a nap. Sensei Wu had come into the room and suggested that Cole along with everyone should take a nap.

Nya was finishing off with Jay before she made her at over to Zane. She was about to take a look at him when he started up by himself.

"Impact onyx seniority primadonnas heartbreakers," Zane jarbbled, flailing his arms wildly.

He put his hand on his head, a wince of pain flashing on his face, his right eye flashing into coded lines again before popping back to normal.

"What?" Nya said, confused.

Zane's dialog had attracted the attention of Kai and Lloyd who joined her by Zane's side.

"Shine each queen rays." Zane sighed.

He tried to pull himself to his feet but failed. Miserably. He flopped onto his chest, face planting into the floor. He tried to push himself up and get his legs back under him, but he couldn't do that either.

"Suitcase clock test." Zane groaned.

"He can't use his legs," Lloyd explained, helping Zane pushed himself back into a sitting position.

"Like their broken?" Nya asked, "'Cause I can fix that."

"Said something about them being gone." Lloyd murmured.

"I think it has to do with his legs decoding," Kai said.

"That might be a problem. I don't know even remotely know how to fix that." Nya sighed.

"Seven lamp cats," Zane said.

His right eye twitched, coded lines going over it before disappearing again.

"Trees am cartoon," Zane babbled.

Nya opened his chest compartment and started fidgeting with stuff.

"Try now." She said.

"Sneakers closet fan?" Zane asked.

"Nope. Still, can't understand you." Lloyd said.

"My students." Sensei Wu said, poking his head through the door, "I suggest you sleep. You have had a long day and you need to rest to heal physically, mentally, and emotionally."

"Sensei-" Nya protested.

"Come on." Kai said putting a hand on her shoulder, "Sensei's right. We need our energy to deal with Morro tomorrow."

"Alright." Nya admitted defeated, "You okay with that Zane?"

Zane gave her a thumbs up and nodded.

Nya stifled a yawn, pretending not to see the amused look of Kai as she walked out of the door and into her room.

* * *

Zane had said that he was okay, but he had never told a bigger lie in his life. But he couldn't let Nya neglect her self-requirements for his.

So he sat, propped up against the wall listening to the sounds of his brothers sleeping. He had never felt so trapped. At least with Morro, he had the expectation of not being free. But now Morro was gone and he was "free" but still stuck. Stuck with legs that he couldn't move by himself. Stuck with a speech that was a jumble of words.

He could just barely make out what Nya was saying to him, most of it sounding like a jumble to him. But by analyzing patterns, body language, and the tone of their voices, he had managed to piece together the gist of what they were saying.

He felt like he was going insane. Morro was gone. He should be happy now. Getting rid of Morro's possession was supposed to fix everything. Everything was supposed to be back to normal now that Morro was gone. He was supposed to be free, able to move, do, and say whatever he wanted. Yet now he had never felt more trapped. It left a bitter taste in his mouth.

Not to mention his right eye was malfunctioning, temporarily leaving him to see only in one eye. The first time it happened, he thought he was going blind. However, the more it happened, the more used to he got to it. Which kinda scared him. He didn't want to get used to it. Just as he didn't want to get used to sharing a body and mind with Morro. But now, it felt like he was missing something, the space in his head felt a little too lonely, a little too spacious. He had no one to talk to. He had nothing to do. For once, he was completely alone in his head and it was a little jarring. He pulled the digital pack of cards into his screen and shuffled them laying out a game. He sighed as he started to play against himself.

As he played with the cards, he couldn't help but think about the game with Morro. He had to admit, it was a little fun. He felt like he could glimpse the person Morro had once been, adventurous, eager, and happy. Definitely happier than he was now. It was a shame that he never got to meant the alive Morro, what would he say if he could have gone back and meant him? " _Hi, I'm Zane. I just wanted to let you know that you're going to grow up into a bitter undead ghost and try to take over the world, possessing my body along the way."_ What would he have done if someone said that to him right now?

" _What am I thinking?!"_ Zane thought to himself shocked.

He hated Morro, yet he somehow kinda missed him. These feelings conflicted against each other, making him feel every more mixed up and dysfunctional. He let out a quiet sigh, fiddling with his fingers. He would have mediated, but he had had enough of mediation, since it was something that he had done way too much when Morro was in his head, stuck with nothing else to do. He could have slept but this was something that he couldn't do, his mind was racing and he couldn't find a way to settle it and let himself drift into the sweet unconsciousness of sleep.

His mind wandered yet again back to Morro, he hated him right? Then why did he feel bad for him? Was it because even though Morro tormented him all the time, Zane could see his own ragged, tormented soul? Was it the fact that he had been with Morro when he had mentally snapped? That shouldn't have excused anything, Morro had wronged him in so many ways. So why did he not celebrate the empty space in his head? Instead, it left him feeling just...meh. He tried to tell himself that he was just being ridiculous and denied that those feelings ever existed. He was just acting this way because...because he was being silly that's why.

Zane stifled another sigh, settling in for a long night with his thoughts.


	22. Chapter 22

**So have any of you gotten out of school yet? I still have 2 more weeks to go, including finals, sigh. I know that some of my cousins have gotten out, not fair. Here the next chapter though. Not too much happens but the next once after it really pick up speed. Just like rushing towards finals.**

 **PixalatedNinjas-** ** _Me too._**

 **Gaaaayylien-** _ **Yep, I left Jay in charge of fixing him. Times a ticking Jay.**_

 **Zaptrap-** ** _Ya, I try to give Morro some redeeming qualities because when he sacraficed himself for the Realm Crystal at the end of the season, he kinda seemed like he could have been a nice guy._**

 **BraveS3-** _ **Great! Oh ya, Shard. They really kicked those dragons to the side. They became the Ultra Dragon and then kinda just disapeared. I forgot where they went off too. A Cave?**_

 **SweetHeart114-** _ **Yep, the epic showdown is coming up soon.**_

* * *

Zane kept mulling things over in his head until he couldn't think anymore. Heck, it hurt to think. So instead Zane just watched, his right eye occasionally flickering in and out every once in a while.

His eyes wandered around the room, landing on the fish, one that he had never seen before. It swam in a glass pitcher meant for flowers. It looked so cooped up, barely able to swim in any direction. Where the fish had come from, he didn't know, but he hadn't been in the Bounty for forever. He really had been away for so long, he could hardly remember the last time he set foot on the Bounty on his own will. This fish could have called this ship it's home for a while now. However, why they would put it in a flower vase was questionable. Why this fish had chosen to capture his attention, he would never know. Maybe it was the fact that it was the only other living thing that was awake in this room, or seemingly awake since fish slept with their eyes open.

" _If I even count as a living thing."_ Zane thought to himself.

This thought appalled him. It was something that Morro would have said, no doubt, but it was the truth. He couldn't prove anything. He had no proof. He dismissed this thought, throwing it onto the pile of things to think about once it stopped hurting to think.

The fish wasn't a colorful fish, but it was pretty still. It was mostly a silver gray color and Zane quickly identified it as a carp, particularly a Koi fish. It had glassy black eyes that were all pupil. As the Koi turned a corner, Zane saw that it had one red fin. It had reminded him a lot of the Koi pond that they had back at the Steeped Wisdom shop. He'd used to love to sit by the pond and watch the fish live out their daily lives, occasionally stopping to look at him, mouths opening and closing, silently asking for food.

Zane continued to watch the fish, swim back and forth just like his thoughts. He couldn't do much but wait. And so he did. He had done a lot of waiting in his lifetime. A lot of waiting with Morro. What was one more night? So he looked and listened instead of thinking. He watched the sun peek over the horizon. The beautiful sunrise that bloomed into the air with it. He watched the wind briskly fly through the trees, making them sway in its wake. He waited until he heard the yawn of the first person in the room waking. This was Jay. Zane, had he been able to sleep, usually would have been the first to wake, but today it was Jay. He sleepily raised from his bed, his hair poofed into a monstrous fluff of bedhead. He almost looked like he had an afro, an afro that crackling slightly with electricity.

Jay first noticed the fish, its red moving fin catching his attention.

"Haha." Jay laughed, "I dub thy Koi Smith."

He turned his head to meet Zane's eyes, which stared at him from the floor. He had a look of startled confusion on his face, surprised to see Zane there.

"Oh. Hey, Zane. Whatcha doin' down there?" Jay asked, oblivious to how Zane couldn't talk since he was out cold then.

Zane raised an eyebrow at him, a puzzled look of expression crossing his face.

"Did nobody help you into bed? That's kinda surprising." Jay said, accompanied by another yawn, "I would move you but I don't think my leg can even move me. Not to mention my arm."

Jay could almost see Zane's gears whirling in his head.

"What's the matter?" Jay asked, eyebrows raising into a puzzled expression.

Zane was silent, but not this quiet.

"Pickles hockey flag?" Zane asked.

Jay could have almost sworn this was a dream.

"Zane being zany?" Jay asked himself.

"Catastrophe computer glacier." Zane replied.

This of course was enough noise to wake Lloyd, or partially wake Lloyd.

"Zane's on the fritz." Lloyd mumbled, half awake, "Can't speak."

"Oh my," Jay replied.

"Hey, can you help me down so I can take a look at him?" Jay asked.

Grumbling something about being the all powerful green ninja but not having the powers to sleep, Lloyd helped or practically carried Jay down from his bunk bed, setting him near the floor next to Zane.

"Hey," Jay said, "Did you see Koi Smith?"

"You mean Kai?" Lloyd asked.

"No, Koi." Jay laughed, pointing to the fish.

"Oh no. We forgot to put him back." Lloyd sighed, "Whelp, no use trying to go back to sleep. I'm going to find this guy a bigger bowl."

Lloyd stumbled out of the door in search of said bowl, leaving Jay to try and manage things with one arm.


	23. Chapter 23

**Sorry about the delay. It's finals week next week and I have been kicking my butt trying to get ready for it. Actually more like trying to get all of the late tests and missing homework turned in so that I can study. Anyways, I _final_ -ly got the chance to just post this chapter. All be it at 12 in the morning but whatever. **

**Also, any suggestions for good Ninjago fanfictions? The ones that I have been keeping up to date haven't been posting too recently so I am looking to add a couple more so the posts don't seem too far and in between. I'd love to hear what you guys suggest.**

 **BraveS3-** _ **Ya, I forgot to put the fish back so I was like "guess they have a pet fish now". And then I realized I could make a spin off of Kai's name. I gotta find something to do with the fish. I don't really know what, but I don't want to be just a useless "character?" cause I gave it a bit of attention in the last chapter so I've gotta do something with it now. Any suggestions guys? Attack fish?**_

 **StoriesAreMagic- _Jay's going to give it his best shot. Since I already wrote the earlier chapters, up to chapter 28 so far, I know what's going to happen. Hehehehe._**

* * *

Jay opened Zane's compartment and started to look around. After studying it, he quickly identified the problem. Jay and Nya shared a lot of things in common, one their love of technology. But Nya liked to stick to building giant fighting robot machines. Jay liked to stick to coding and computer stuff. This was how Jay was able to find the problem and Nya was not.

"You probably sustained some damage that allowed water to leak in," Jay analyzed, "That probably also dislodged some things. It's very soggy in here. I'm pretty sure you're mostly waterproof right?"

Zane nodded.

"But by the looks of it, your self-repairs fix up whatever hole let the water in," Jay said, peering and feeling around the sides.

What had happened was that Zane had sustained damage to his audio, speech, and voice analyzer and synthesizer. Jay knew exactly what to do and what was the problem. Zane's self-repairs had gotten most of the job done but not quite. Jay picked up some of the wires and started to plug them back in, along with taking his speaker out and dumping the water that was caught in it out. He had changed Zane's voice and vocabulary before, making him sound like a pirate once, which was a riot, so he was very familiar with Zane's audio systems.

"There." Jay said, closing the panel with a click, "Testing, testing, one, two, three."

"Thanks, Jay, but I assure you that I am better then a microphone will ever be," Zane replied, giving Jay a look a complete gratitude.

"No problem, Zane. So, have you been sitting here all night?" Jay asked.

"Yep," Zane replied, not getting too much in before Lloyd came back in carrying a bucket.

"This is the best I could find little guy." Lloyd said, dumping the fish in, "I don't have any fish food around here. But I guess you're going to have to tag along with us for a while so we are going to need to pick some up. I don't think Kai will let us go back to the ocean anytime soon, so you're going to be here for a while."

The fish, of course, gave no answer. It looked up at Lloyd with wary but intrigued eyes. Its mouth opening and closing.

"Hey, Zane." Lloyd said, turning to the nindroid, "Did you know that that fish flopped out of your compartment when Nya opened it?"

"No way!" Jay laughed, only to be shushed by Kai.

"Koi Smith-" Jay started.

"What!" Kai grumpily responded.

"Not you, the fish." Jay laughed, finding this all hilarious.

Kai rolled his eyes and tried to roll back over into sleep, but Jay's constant chatter proved to him that he wasn't going to get any more than he already had.

"Too bad Morro didn't break your jaw," Kai grumbled, kicking the covers off.

"Hey!" Jay exclaimed.

"Why did you not return the fish to its natural habitat?" Zane asked.

"We didn't return Kai to his natural habitat," Jay replied.

"We kinda got caught up in the moment with everything happening in all," Lloyd replied, "Before we knew it, we were all in bed and Pixal had already left the area."

"Pixal," Zane said.

"We haven't told her that you're back yet," Jay gasped, "Or at least I haven't."

"She's going to be ecstatic that you're back," Kai said.

 _"No, she won't. She hates me. I've been a terrible boyfriend. I don't deserve to have someone like that,"_ Zane sighed to himself in his head.

Both Jay and Zane still sat next to each other on the floor, unable to move by themselves. While the others took more comfortable seats on their beds.

"So what are we going to do about Morro?" Cole asked.

"We have to find out where Morro is hiding with the Realm Crystal. His ghost henchmen are gone, courtesy of Nya, so we can try to take him on and take it from him before he uses it." Lloyd suggested.

"Because that went so well the last time." Kai grumbled, "He can practically teleport with the thing."

"We don't have any other choice." Cole sighed, "Morro's going to protecting that thing with every tooth and nail he's got."

"That's true." Jay mumbled, "But Zane's unoperational, which I'll look at in a minute by the way, and I'm broken. That's not good odds."

"Jay is correct." Zane added, "If you are following through with this plan, you need the element of surprise on your hands and to have it well thought out. This reduces the chance of failure. But still, Moro is going to expect us to retaliate."

"Zane's right." Kai said, "So any suggestions where Morro would be hiding?"

"How about we turn on the T.V. and watch the news. If Morro is doing anything wide scale, there will be news reporters on it."

"You know how the reporters of Ninjago love to get in on the action. Stuff like that is always happening around here." Jay agreed.

"You get Jay, and I'll get Zane?" Lloyd suggested.

"I can take Zane." Kai offered.

"Nah, I got him," Lloyd said, picking the nindroid up bridal style.

"Actually, how about you bring him to my stuff and I can see about his legs," Jay said.

"Ya, you can try to fix him while we look for Morro," Cole said.

Kai and Lloyd brought Zane and Jay into his tech room, pulling a chair up for Jay to sit on and laying Zane down on the metal table.

"All good?" Lloyd asked.

"Yep, thanks," Jay answered in return, "Now let's pop open this hood."

"First I was a microphone and now I'm a car." Zane sighed, pulling open the latch.

* * *

Lloyd, Kai, and Cole immediately turned on the T.V. once they walked into the living room. After switching through the news channels, they found nothing.

"Guess it's time for the old fashion method." Kai sighed, leaving the T.V. just in case.

He pulled a map out and placed it on the table.

"So where do you think Morro is?" Kai asked, "I bet twenty on Ninjago City."

"Come on, Kai. Stop fooling around." Lloyd said pulling the fire ninja by his hoodie.

"Let's go talk to Pixal," Lloyd said, "She'd be more help than a map."

"I think Morro totally snapped," Cole said, on the way up.

"No, really?" Kai sarcastically replied.

"It only makes him more dangerous." Lloyd replied, "To us and himself. Now he's more likely to make a rash decision."

The three walked into the control room, calling to Pixal.

"What's up?" Pixal asked.

"Pixal. Scan for any traces of where Morro could be hiding." Lloyd asked.

"Traces of what? Ghost particles? Because you and I know that that isn't something that I can do." Pixal replied.

"How about any strange activity or doomsday like things," Kai suggested.


	24. Chapter 24

**Humongous chapter (biggest in the story), however, this might be the last one for a bit as I am going through final's week. YA lots of fun! Anyways, I probably will post the next chapter at the end of the next week, (Saturday) so it might be a while.**

 **(IMPORTANT) In that time, I am going to have to make a decision. This is what has been stopping me from writing past chapter 28 since it would be a big addition to the plot and I then would probably result in a third part of the story in which, (I kinda already have an idea), would have to make another conflict to give it more story since the Morro arc will end at the end of this part. It's something that you guys have been asking for for a long time and I have to make a decision on because there is no way around it.**

 **It's when Zane and Pixal get back together, how's Jay going to react. There are two routes, obviously. Jay's happy for them, or Jay's happy but slightly jealous since he kinda likes Zane too.**

 **Let me know where you would like this to go. I will base the decision of what to do on what you guys want. Majority rules. Although, I can guess what you are going to vote. It also means that if you decide that we have a Jay, Zane, and Pixal love triangle, then the third part would become my main active story, which would push some of the other stories that I wanted to write, further to the side. Which I will get around to later.**

 **Can't wait to see what you guys choose,**

 **Ninalb**

* * *

Cole watched as massive amounts of text appeared on the dash screen, scrolling through at an unbelievable pace. As they sat waiting, Cole decided to tell her about Zane.

"Oh and while we failed to get the Realm Crystal, we got something else," Cole said, building up to telling her.

"Oh, what is that?" Pixal asked, only half paying attention while doing a mass search through code and websites.

"You mean who is that?" Kai said.

This caught Pixal's attention and she stopped what she was doing to look at the ninja, who looked expectantly up at her, looks of joy on their faces.

"Care to elaborate?" Pixal asked, hoping they were going to say what they think they said.

"He's taller than most of us. He's got blue eyes. And hair that can never be combed down." Cole described, loving how excited Pixal looked.

"My gosh. It's Zane." Lloyd interrupted, "You guys are taking forever."

Pixal made a little noise that resembled what a mouse would make, watching the door expectantly.

"Where is he?" Pixal asked, looking around, trying not to be disappointed that he wasn't here.

"Jay's doing a couple repairs on him," Cole explained.

"For what?" Pixal asked.

"Oh, you know..." Lloyd said, not knowing how to put it.

"I don't. Please clarify." Pixal said.

"His legs kinda aren't working because he's decoded," Cole said.

Pixal thought over what they had said to her, trying to make sense of it.

"So he's legs are broken?" Pixal asked, "That's not too bad. At least he's not possessed, or practically brainwashed, or trying to kill everyone."

"Well, it's not that simple-" Kai explained.

"What's up?" Ronin asked, popping his head in.

"Not much just explaining something," Kai answered with a sigh.

Ronin strutted over and took one of the seats, whistling all the way.

"What?" Ronin asked, noticing the silence, "Just because I'm here doesn't mean you can't talk?"

"Well, I guess not," Cole said, "We don't really know how this works so you might be able to clarify us on that."

"Okay," Pixal said.

"Do you have like a basic coding? Or a core coding or something like that?" Lloyd asked.

"Umm, something like that. Our main coding is contained in our hard-drive or microchip." Pixal explained.

"Well, it got decoded so that Zane can't control his legs," Cole explained.

Pixal just started at them thoughtfully, thinking over what they had told her. Her face remained neutral but not blank.

Finally, Pixal spoke, "Okay."

"That was a lot better taken that I thought it would be," Kai admitted what everyone was thinking.

"Look, I'm an android, my processors are always updating. And I've been around the block these past months. I've been told that he's been possessed, missing, mind control, deactivated, captured, and sometimes I've assumed that he's been dead. It's not like stuff like this is new. You could have told me Zane exploded and we were going to have to rebuild him again. I would have believed you," Pixal sighed, "I guess I've just... gotten used to all this doomsday stuff going on around here. Don't get me wrong, it hurts to know something like that has happened to him. But he's lived through everything so far, so he'll live through this."

She resumed scanning the database, text continued to fly across the screen, making her almost unseeable.

"Fixable yes. But there if you're not careful you could end up wiping him completely or destroying his coding. From that point, Zane would be irreparable." Pixal explained. At least I think Zane has core coding, he is a robot after all. We can't get him a new body since that isn't broken." Pixal mused,"We'd probably have to fix his microchip. That's not really something you can mess with though. After it's coded, there's really no chance of changing it. Which is strange how Zane's got changed if that's what happened. A lot of this is super complicated, I don't even really know the extent of core coding, you should ask Zane. He is definitely smarter than me. But Zane might not even know." Pixal explained.

"Wait, doesn't Zane have a backup?" Kai asked.

"Not exactly," Pixal replied, "He survived through a transference of his coding, which if get's destroyed, then would be non-existent. Also, he kinda needs to be operational for that. If he shuts down, he won't be able to do that."

At least I think Zane has core coding, he is a robot after all. We can't get him a new body since that isn't broken." Pixal mused,"We'd probably have to fix his microchip. That's not really something you can mess with though. After it's coded, there's really no chance of changing it. Which is strange how Zane's got changed if that's what happened. A lot of this is super complicated, I don't even really know the extent of core coding, you should ask Zane. He is definitely smarter than me. But Zane might not even know."

"That's a lot to take in," Kai groaned.

"Wow, life has not been kind to that guy." Ronin whistled, putting his feet on the dashboard, much to Cole's disapproval.

"We'd better go tell that to Jay," Lloyd said.

"Agreed." Pixal sighed, wishing she had legs of her own, "He'd find that information most useful."

The ninja filed out of the control room and made their way back downstairs to where Zane and Jay were. Kai peeked his head into the doorway. Jay was scooting around on his spinning-chairs, using his one good leg to move around.

"Great you're back." Jay said, "Zane and I have come up with a plan to fix him, but first I need you to move us up into the control room. I need the big computers to do this."

Nodding, Kai picked up Zane and began the process of carrying him up the stairs. He wasn't too heavy, but not the lightest. Finally, they had made to the control room, he up Zane on the table and pulled a spinning-chair over for Lloyd to put Jay into.

"Great," Jay said.

"Hello, Jay. Hello, Zane!" Pixal called, her rosy face appearing on the monitor.

"Hello," Zane replied, smiling up at her although endless thoughts of doubts were filling his mind.

"Wanna fill us in on what's going on?" Lloyd asked.

"I really don't know. It's Zane's idea." Jay said.

"I'm going to try instructing Jay through on how to fix my coding," Zane explained.

"Is that safe?" Cole asked.

"No." Zane replied casually, "But I can't live the rest of my life like this. I have to take the risk."

"Okay." Zane said, "Plug the extension cord of the panel into the back of my head."

Jay followed his instruction, his team watching behind him.

"You sure you want to go through with this?" Jay asked, dropping everything as the pressure started to gnaw at him, "What if I mess up? What is something really bad happens, then it will all be my fault!"

"You're going to do just fine. I trust you." Zane assured him, "I have the hardest job anyways."

"And what if you can't instruct me through?" Jay worried, "I can't do it myself."

"Umm." Zane said, looking around, "Pixal will help you."

Pixal gave him a look that totally said, " _I have no idea what you are doing and how to do it."_

Her eyes met Zane's and she understood that he didn't know what to do if that happened, he was saying that to make Jay feel better.

"O-okay," Jay said.

He pulled open Zane's panel and started disconnecting things and laying them out on the table with Zane's instruction. All the while, Pixal was noting what order Jay took them out and where they went back just in case.

Jay suddenly stopped, pulling his hand out of Zane's chest.

"This is going to hurt you, isn't it." Jay said, "This is already hurting you."

"Uh, ya," Zane said, already gritting his teeth through the pain.

It felt like someone was tearing his insides out, which they were, sending alarms and signals to go off in his view, along with the searing pain that went along with it. But he was the only one who knew how to do this. He was the only one who could instruct Jay.

"You still want me to continue? I can still put everything back in if you don't want to," Jay asked, hoping he would say no.

"Yep," Zane agreed, much to his disappointment.

Jay continued to remove gears and wires until only the most important things remained.

"Do you see it?" Zane asked, breathing heavily, hands clutching the side of the table.

"This is why I never would want to be a doctor." Kai whispered to Cole, "I could never handle doing that to someone."

"I don't think Jay wants to be a doctor either." Cole said, "He's doing this for Zane."

"Ya," Jay said, poking the silver box that held his microchip.


	25. Chapter 25

**Ok, finally had some free time! Thanks for bearing with me through the mini-hiatus. Anyways the answer to the big question; I going to keep it between Pixane. No Technoshipping. Sorry for everyone who wanted that. Anyways, I'm glad that we're taking this route since the more I thought about it the less I wanted to do it. Since first, I suck at writing romance and have little experience with it, and second, I was really looking forward to drawing this to an end and letting some of my other ideas shine.**

 **Gaaaayylien-** _ **yes, all of your dreams came true. Did you wish on a start for three new chapters?**_

 **Guest- _Congrats you get the award for longest review posted by a guest on this story. Also, I could never write a story with something like sex in it. For this one I would definitely have to bump the rating up to M. And I don't write or read anything over T. So you're safe. And since we're doing no technoshipping, your going even more safe._**

* * *

"Okay," Zane said, trying to focus through the pain, "See that silver box that contains my microchip?"

"Ya," Jay said.

"Open it," Zane said.

"Got it," Jay said, fingering with the latch.

"Okay. You gotta be careful now." Zane instructed, "Carefully reach in and pull the microchip and only the microchip out. Watch out for all the wires."

"Slowly or fast like I'm ripping off a band-aid?" Jay asked.

"Whatever you like." Zane panted.

"Ok," Jay said, deciding to slowly pull the chip out.

Jay tried to fit his finger into the box and poke around. But the more he tried to keep it still, the more it shook. It didn't help that his teammates were practically on his back watching him like a hawk. Or rather a falcon, who was watching him too. Ignoring the several pairs of eyes burning into his back, he focused back on the box.

He finally fit his pinky finger in and felt the flat side of the microchip. He carefully pulled it out, holding it close to the box.

"Okay what's-" Jay started to asked but stopped when he saw Zane's face.

Zane was gasping much like a fish out of water. A tight grimace was ironed into his face as the side of the table that he was gripping was starting to bend under his hold. He was starting to have doubts, wondering if this really was a good idea. The amount of pain was almost unbearable, more painful than almost anything before.

"Do you want me to put I back in?" Jay asked.

Zane slightly shook his head, indicating that he didn't want him to do that.

"Do you want me to pull it all the way out?" Jay asked, not knowing what to do with the thing that was still in his hand.

"Just-let-go," Zane instructed.

Jay placed it on top of the silver box and watched Zane's expression of pain ease a bit.

"Thanks," Zane said, "The pressure of you holding it was excruciating,"

"Why did you design yourself to register pain?" Kai asked.

"Because pain is an essential mechanism for life. You need to have it to notice that something is wrong, usually internally. That's how my self-repair systems know what to repair. Plus I am a designed to be as close to a human as possible, flaws and all." Zane explained.

"Okay, what next?" Jay asked.

"The hard part," Zane said.

"That was the easy part?" Jay yelped, the sinking feeling in his stomach getting even heavier. So heavy that he thought that he might weigh down the whole Bounty.

"I'm going to tell you all the instructions now. Just in case." Zane said.

"In case of what?" Jay asked.

"A mandatory shutdown that might be triggered by messing with the microchip or the power source." Zane explained, "Pixal can you note all of this for him?"

"WHAT!?" Jay shrieked.

"On it," Pixal replied.

"Didn't you think to tell me this earlier?" Jay yelled.

"Ya, but if I did, the chances of you going through with this would go exponentially down." Zane explained.

"Anyways, you need to pull the microchip out of my chest without removing any of the wires. They should be long for you to be able to put the microchip on the table. Then you should probably slip the microchip into the processor of the Bounty, that way you can view the code and Pixal can help you find what the problem is. Based on your knowledge and Pixal's knowledge of coding, you should be able to find the part that is damaged. The code won't line properly and the symbols might look off. Pixal should be able to analyze what part is missing and fill it in." Zane instructed.

"We are going on plausible's and shoulds?!" Jay exclaimed.

"I can't live the rest of my life like this." Zane sighed, "Hopefully it will be worth all of the pain. If I do shut down, Pixal probably will be able to fill in some of the gaps in my instructions."

"Okay." Jay said, taking a deep breath, "Should I start now?"

"Preferably yes," Zane said, "Sitting here and waiting is agony. Literally."

Jay scooped up the microchip and slowly unraveled the long and thin pieces of wire that were coiled in the box. He placed the chip on the table, straightening all the wires out. Trying to relax a bit, he slowly pressed the pronged end of the microchip into the Bounty's computer.

Zane made a beeping voice, the light in his eyes draining.

"Mandatory shut down commencing due to Error 582." A robotic voice that once belonged to Zane droned.

Jay took a sigh, they had prepared for this. The feeling of doing this alone was suffocating, the pressure unbearable.

"Jay," Pixal said, snapping him out of his thoughts,"I just ran a scan through his coding and I couldn't find anything out of the ordinary. Everything seems to be there."

"That's just a great!" Jay exclaimed, "Now I have no clue what I'm doing!"

Letting out a humongous sigh, he pulled the microchip out of the Bounty's computer. What else could he do, this whole thing was a bust. Unless.

"Pixal, do you think that there could be something wrong with the chip itself?" Jay asked.

"That's plausible," Pixal said.

"Great more plausible's." Jay sighed.

Jay rolled the wheelie chair over to his toolbox, digging through to the top until he found what he wanted. He pulled them out careful not to break it. His mom had given him this, it was similar to the one that had been used to give Pixal half of Zane's power source. He pulled on a pair of microscope glasses, pulling the multiple lenses down until they were at full power. Plucking a pair of tweezers out of the tool box, he inspected Zane's power source with his enhanced vision.

Part of Zane's blue power source was sticking out of the end of the microchip. Jay maneuvered his tweezers and carefully pulled it all the way out, hoping this didn't cause any permanent damage. If he could just look around inside and see if there was anything broken. However, it wasn't long before it was apparent what was broken. It wasn't the chip itself, everything was intact and looked almost brand new. It was Zane's power source. 3/4 was its regular crystal blue, however, the 1/4 was a gray-white color, not matching its glowing counterpart.

"What the heck?!" Kai exclaimed throwing his hands up into the air.

Jay had to fix this, Zane was relying on him, the team was relying on him. Plus there was no going back now. There was no option to quit. Jay flicked the blue lens overtop all the other ones. This, of course, made everything tinted blue like the world had been doused in paint. This made it easier to see the contrast of color in Zane's power source.

"I can do this," Jay mumbled to himself.


	26. Chapter 26

**Okay here's what's going on. I am going on a two-week overnight camping/canoeing trip starting 6/26/17. People reading this is the future after this, done worry about this. HI, FUTURE PEOPLE! ^.^ HOW'S LIFE? Anyways, since I won't be allowed to bring any electronic devices, this story will be forced to be put on hiatus. This is the first hiatus I've done since...ever, so yay, we've crossed a checkpoint. Anyways, I will try to put an update up the Saturday that I get back, I think it is the 8th so that you guys don't have to wait any longer. Also, you guys get left on a cliffhanger, I can already feel your suffering. So that's just what's going on. Sorry.**

 **Musiclover435 _-_** ** _Thanks, I try to make the suspense build up and keep my readers on the edge of their seats. Also, correct me if I'm wrong, this is the first review you've left. Welcome! (If not, welp, *Shoulder Shrug*)_**

 **Guest-** _ **Thanks, finals are over. I got nothing lower than a B. That's pretty good. You do have a tendency to leave long comments. However, if you like being on fanfiction so much, how come you don't get an account? It doesn't really matter though, you're still welcome to read.**_

 **BraveS3-** _ **Yeeees...I've got nothing else . _. (Weird how I can write a story but not a review. Anybody else have that problem?)**_

 **SweetHeart114-** _ **Yep, both of them will have to pull through or else this story is going to get a hellova lot longer.**_

* * *

"You think you can fix it?" Cole asked, floating over to him.

"Okay," Jay said, "It's easier to see with the blue tint, but I can see that it's trying to reconnect with the other side."

"Reconnect?" Kai asked.

"Ya," Jay confirmed, "There are little blue surges that are trying to restart it once every..."

Jay pulled a watch up while watching Zane's power source.

"Once every 2 minutes," Jay said.

"Jay," Pixal said, "I suggest whatever you do, you do quickly, having Zane's power source exposed to weathering could have negative effects. Not to mention that he's practically laying gutted on the table."

If Zane was human the scene on the table would have looked definitely more graphic. It still looked terrible though. Grey oil-ly stuff was dripping from Jay's hands and the table, spilling messily onto the floor. Zane definitely looked dead on the table, arms hanging over the sides, dead gray eyes, and his mouth slightly agape.

"Okay," Jay said, taking a deep breath.

He didn't really have a plan. His current plan was to make a plan of how to make the rest of Zane's power source light up.

"Lloyd, Kai," Jay said, "I need you to bring some things over."

"What do you need?" Lloyd asked.

"I need you to bring a battery that can release ummm, let's say 100 volts at once. How about the Bounty's back up generator," Jay instructed, "And then you need to get four alligator clamps and a bucket of water."

"Are you sure this is going to work?" Pixal couldn't help but worry.

"I hope so," Jay said.

Most of his plan had been devised as one would jump a car, which wasn't too promising.

"Can't you just use your powers?" Kai asked, lugging the giant battery over.

"You know I can't release certain voltages." Jay sighed, "You can make fire at a specific temperature?"

"Fair point," Kai said, dropping the battery by the side of the table.

"Okay," Jay said, taking a deep breath.

His brothers stood by his side, pledging their silent support. Jay was grateful that they were here. He took a deep breath and carefully connected the four ends of the clamps on the four sides of the power source, alternating from positive and negative sides. He carefully dropped the power source into the water and connected the other sides of the clamps onto the output of the battery. All he had to do was pull the switch.

Suddenly, Jay had an overwhelming amount of doubts swarm him.

"What if I mess up?" Jay asked himself.

"Zane trusts you," Lloyd said, putting a hand on Jay's shoulder.

"I know and what if I fail?!" Jay wailed.

"Here." Kai said, placing a hand on the lever, "I can pull it if you want. I trust that your right."

"More trust in me when I don't know what I'm doing!" Jay wailed, feeling like he was going to descend into a panic attack.

"Hey, calm down." Cole said, "How about we all do it. Together."

"Okay," Jay said, trying to stop shaking.

He solemnly placed a hand on the lever like it was a death sentence.

"Pixal? Do you think this is going to work?" Jay asked.

His eyes searched Pixal's face desperately looking for an answer.

"Yes," Pixal said, deciding to give him the answer that he wanted.

She believed, hoped, that Jay's plan would work. But there was no way to know unless they tried. Her calculations were 50/50, there was an equal chance of success and failure.

"We need to make sure that this is timed with the surges, or else I don't think it will work," Jay explained.

Jay reached down and pulled out pairs of safety goggles for everyone to wear.

"Eye protection. Just in case.." Jay said, hoping that there wouldn't be any explosions.

Jay held up the watch watching it tick.

"Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five.." Jay counted down.

"Four, three, two...one!" They all finished together, pulling the lever down.

* * *

Morro walked through the gates of Stiix, noting that Soul Archer's arrow was still lodged in the top of the sign.

"Welcome To Stiix!" It read, "The First City Built In The Middle Of The Ocean!"

Morro walked in, ignoring the stares of people looking at him. Not many people saw ghosts. Most rubbed their eyes or cleaned their glasses not able to believe what they were seeing. Some pulled out phones and took pictures ready to prove to the world about how they were right that ghosts existed. Morro didn't care if they saw him or not. He just trudged on heading to Ronin's shop. He would make his base and capital of ghost chaos in the middle of the ocean. The ninja would never expect for him to return here. This would give him the slight element of surprise.

But he knew that once the Preeminent was unleashed, only a tsunami of water could bring her down. Choosing this as his base would definitely make the ninja cockier, they would see this area as a big advantage. But little did they know that the Preeminent was the Cursed Realm. Ghosts that were destroyed by water would pop right back out of the Cursed Realm, fit for battle again. The portal just needed to stay open for long enough for him to get the Preeminent out. This was his reason for basing here, along with it being the closest area. Morro slid open the door to Ronin's pawn shop, stepping inside and closing it with a bang.

The place needed some sprucing up. With a touch of ghostly magic, the shop looked more like a room of horrors. Just how he liked it. Green light bulbs shone their sickly light, casting it throughout the room. Ronin's manager chair was transformed into a throne, twisted bones and knives replaced the wood used to make the frame. Banners hung from the walls, some promoting his cause, others having depictions of the ninja's deaths embroidered on it. He had weapons lining all of the walls, ready for his ghosts allies.

He sat down on the chair with a sigh. He couldn't just bring all of his ghost allies and the Preeminent into this dimension. Transferring the user or another person was easy, but opening up a portal so that multiple beings could pass through, let alone the embodiment of another realm, wasn't easy. For each being that passed through, depending on size, that was how big the Realm Crystal had to make a tear between the two dimensions. Tearing through dimensions was definitely not easy, either. It would take a lot of time for the crystal to power up enough to make a big enough tear for the Preeminent. And the ninja wouldn't just hand over that time either.

" _Good thing I'm used to not taking the easy route,_ " Morro thought, started the crystal's power up, it's blue glow mixing with his green lights.

He set it down on a frame before placing a blanket on it to try and stifle its glow. It didn't really help, the light emitted from the crystal made it easily known where it was. He set it down on a frame before hiding it just in case. It didn't really help, either.

A crooked smile crossed Morro's face, it was finally happening. The end of the Ninjago realm was coming and so was the rise of his time.


	27. Chapter 27

Lloyd had a pair of safety goggles on. What he need was a pair of sunglasses. Immediately after they pulled the lever, there was a flash of blinding bright white light. Now everyone stood next to each other, mouths open, eyes trying to adjust to the sudden changes of light. Big black dots danced around his vision, he was 70% sure he was now blind.

Kai was obviously thinking the same thing since he screamed, "I'M BLIND!"

Lloyd reached around blindly until he found the familiar feel of Kai's shoulder.

"Ugh, I can't see anything. It's so dark and these black dots aren't helping," Cole said somewhere.

"The cameras on the Bounty are shot." Pixal said, "They are offline. I can't see anything and won't until we replace them. Let me know what's going on."

Lloyd blinked a couple of times finally being to see the blurry outline of Kai's face.

"Hey, it's clearing up for me too," Lloyd said.

"The light! It burns!" Kai joked, getting a chuckle from Lloyd, "Pun intended."

"Do you think it worked?" Lloyd asked.

"Ummmm." Kai said, "I hope it did."

Lloyd frowned, all he wanted to do was see what the result was but now they all had to wait in paranoid tension for their eyes to readjust.

"You don't think we're stuck like this forever?" Lloyd asked.

"Probably not." Kai mused.

"Hey," Jay complained, "You guys don't nearly have it as bad. I was wearing magnifying glasses. Magnifying Glasses."

"Ya, if there's anyone who's blind, it's Jay." Kai laughed.

"We shouldn't be blinded." Cole said, "But it kinda feels like you have been looking at the sun for too long."

"Why have you been looking at the sun?" Kai asked, "You know that can cause people to go blind."

"Ya, but I'm a ghost, I'm already dead. I will remain in the same physical condition forever." Cole replied, "I mean Morro still looks like our age although he definitely older than us. I mean Sensei trained him when he was in his youth. And we all know Sensei Wu is ancient."

This sparked a little laughter between the team. Lloyd blinked rapidly several times, the blurry lines were starting to become more defined and soon he could see as good as he ever did. The black dots faded away until they were gone completely. He stepped towards the pan of water, the other's following as soon as their eyes cleared. Lloyd leaned over and peered into the pan. The power source glowed as luminescent as ever again. Thgrayey part glowed now just as strongly as ever.

"Oh thank god! It worked!" Jay exclaimed, "What do you know. You can jump start a nindroid like you jump start a car."

"That's how you figured out what to do?!" Kai exclaimed.

"I couldn't think of anything else." Jay shrugged, "I had to so something quickly."

"Whelp, it worked." Lloyd smiled.

"Jay, you need to get Zane's power source back in," Pixal warned.

"On it," Jay said.

He grabbed a pair his pair of tweezers and unclipped the clamps. He carefully slipped the power source back into the slot of the microchip. And placed it back into the silver box with a click. Lloyd helped pick up and carry the battery and alligator clamps and put them back where they belong in the closet. He turned back to see Jay already putting all the pieces back where they belong with help from Pixal.

"It's a lot easier to take things out than to put things back in," Jay mumbled, pushing a metal wire back into place.

"You did it, Jay," Lloyd said, putting a hand on Jay's shoulder.

"Yah," Jay said softly, "I did."

Jay beamed with pride as he finished putting Zane's last pieces back in. He held down a button for 5 seconds before punching a couple others. Something that Zane had told him would initiate a start up.

Zane took a deep breath in, his eyes lighting back up.

"Starting up," Zane said, before babbling a bunch of code.

Zane blinked, looking a little disoriented before looking down at Jay.

"Did you do it?" Zane asked, feeling his chest.

"I think," Jay replied.

"You should have seen him." Lloyd told Zane, "Jay was amazing. It turns out it was our power source that was malfunctioning and Jay figured out a way to fix it."

Lloyd could visibly see the blush that flushed over Jay's face.

"It was nothing." Jay humbly said, "But I don't know if it worked, try walking."

Lloyd was about to offer a hand to Zane but he didn't take it as he jumped off the table landing sturdily on his feet. Zane stretched his legs, walking over to Jay.

"Thank so much, Jay," Zane said, pulling Jay into a hug.

Jay wrapped his arms around Zane and melted into Zane's hug. The adrealine rush started to disapate and left him tired and exhasted.

"I-I was so s-scared." Jay sniffed, letting out all of his stress, "I wa-as so af-f-fraid I couldn-n't do it."

"But you did it." Zane smiled, "I am so thankful that you did it."

"If something happened I would have never been able to forgive myself." Jay sobbed.

"That would be a shame," Zane replied, "Because I asked you to do it. It was my decision."

"What the heck is going on here!" Nya said, bursting into the room, "I'm minding my own business and BOOM! there's a flash of white and I couldn't see anything! I thought Morro unleashed hell and the world was ending!"

"Oh, hey Nya," Kai said, nonchalantly.

"Woah," Nya replied when she saw Jay's red eyes, "What happened."

"Nothing," Jay smiled, wiping his eyes, "I fixed Zane."

"What did you do?" Nya asked, inspecting the fully functioning nindroid.

"You should have seen him," Kai said, already starting to retell the events that just happened.

"Guys!" Pixal interrupted Kai's heroic account, "There are recent events talking about ghost sighting in Stiix. There are some pictures and I'm sure it's Morro. I'm switching the changing the destination to Stiix."

"Aw, I thought we were going to the hospital to get a pair of crutches." Jay sighed.

"We'll make you a makeshift pair. Now come on, let's see these ghost sightings," Lloyd said, leading the ninja out of the control room.

Pixal sighed, listening to the sound of footsteps receding down the stairs.

"Uh, Pixal?" Pixal heard Zane's voice call.

"Oh, Zane. I didn't know that you are still there." Pixal said.

"Didn't you see me?" Zane asked.

"The Bounty cameras are out of sorts right now. More on that later." Pixal replied.

"So do you want to talk?"


	28. Chapter 28

Zane and Pixal were alone in the control room together. The last time they were in this situation was when Zane had told her that he couldn't promise her that he would come back. And then he was taken by Morro.

"Pixal?" Zane said.

"What is it, Zane?" Pixal asked.

Zane thought for a second, trying to put the words in the best way. Eventually, he gave up, with a sigh, and decided to ask her the question straight out.

"Do you hate me?" Zane asked.

"Hate you?" Pixal inquired, a little shocked that he thought that she could be capable for that.

"Ya," Zane sighed, pulling up a chair and sitting in it.

"I've been a terrible boyfriend." Zane groaned, letting his head drop into his hands.

"What makes you think that?" Pixal asked

"What have I done that hasn't made you think of me like that?" Zane asked, "I've dragged you through emotional torture, I've left you here stranded in this computer with no way to do anything, and I've been attacking and fighting you and everyone that I love this whole time. I just haven't been there. I haven't been me."

"Zane. All of that is true." Pixal replied, "But I don't hate you for that. None of that was in your control. I knew that your destiny would be full of pain, strife, happiness, and victory and I choose to be a part of that when I became your girlfriend. I want to be a part of your story, I want to be a part of all of this. I will always be there through thick and thin and nothing could change that. Morro could never change that."

"But-"

"There are no buts." Pixal interrupted, "This is how it will always be."

"Do you not see my face as the face of the enemy?" Zane questioned, desperate for understanding.

"To be honest, I do a little. I can't help that since you have been the one we've been fighting. But I also see the face of someone who I love and care about. I see the face of someone who has saved the world multiple times. Someone who would give anything for the good of others. I see you. The real you, not the puppet being pulled by Morro's strings. Well, I could see if the cameras weren't broken."

"Ugh, I'm such a fool. Why would I ever believe what Morro would tell me? Only a fool would believe in what he said." Zane sighed, feeling even more miserable, "Do you ever feel like you should just stop caring so it will just stop hurting?"

"All the time. But when I meet you I learned something new. I learned what feeling was, what being alive was, and what emotions were. And I wouldn't give it up for the world. I wouldn't give you up for the world. It's something that isn't worth the world. Are we still compatible?" Pixal asked.

Zane just sunk back into the chair, pushing it back on it's two back legs. He looked up at the ceiling and studied all of the cracks in the wood. He let it capture all of his attention, not wanting to look back at the expectant face of Pixal.

"I-I don't know," Zane said softly, "I love you with all my heart ' _if I even have a heart,'_ but I'm just so confused. I don't know what I'm doing, I don't know what I want. My thoughts are messed up, I'm messed up. If you saw you wouldn't love me for what I've become."

"Zane. If I saw I could help you feel better. Nothing you could ever think you make me ever stop loving you. Because I know the real you. All those thoughts are just left over from Morro and I can help you get rid of those. You and I can, together, repair all the damage he's done. All of it. Inside and out. I still think we're compatible. But the real question is, do you still think we're compatible? Do you want to be compatible?"

"Yes."

The question was easy to answer. It was still something that rang out in his heart, loud and clear. His undying love for Pixal. Zane reached down and pulled Pixal's hard drive from the Bounty's computer, inserting it into the back of his head. Pixal's bright and cheery face appeared on the side of the screen, smiling back at him.

"But don't you hate being stuck in my head? I hated being stuck in my head." Zane asked.

"I'm not stuck, I'm free to do whatever I want." Pixal said, "I get to make decisions, I get to live my life with you. Nothing would make me happier."

Zane took a deep breath, holding it in for a second before letting it out.

"Thank you," Zane said.

"For what?"

"For being here with me." Zane replied, "I don't think I could have done it on my own."

"You shouldn't have to do it on your own." Pixal said, "That's why we're here. To support you. Me, your brothers, your Sensei and Misako, Nya, and maybe even Ronin. Nobody really knows what side Ronin is on. Saving the world is hard. No one should have to do it themselves."

"Ready to go and save the world?" Zane asked.

"Anytime." Pixal smiled, happy to make the nindroid feel better.

Zane ran out of the room eager to join his brothers.


	29. Chapter 29

**Hey guys, long time no post. This chapter, since it had Ronin, who is practically a wild card, was pretty hard to write. Also, I wanted to post this yesterday, which was my birthday, but since my siblings started fighting over video games, all of them got confiscated. No matter, snuck out this morning to find my computer and post this. Here it is! I am also posting two other chapters along with this one, as in celebration on my birthday! Sorry about not writting any comments to reviews, I am trying to get this done as soon as possible. Enjoy!**

* * *

Ronin was still not forgiven by Nya. Her opinion on still stayed the same from the night that he had come back. She detested him for what he was done. She hated him for betraying her trust, betraying the realm of Ninjago. She hated him for making her feel weak and useless, leaving her in the guilt of not seeing that this would happen. And she hated him most of all, for getting her to trust him, to even consider him a friend, and feel like she enjoyed his company, even though he was annoying almost always. She didn't need people who abandoned her in her life. He made the choice, the sword or their friendship. And he picked the sword. She promised herself that she wouldn't let anyone else make her feel like that ever again.

Ronin had tried his best to win her friendship back. But Nya was by no means ready to repair the broken bridge. He had tried to be helpful, assisting her in every way that he could think, and generally trying to make it up to the rest of the crew. They had eventually, even Kai, accepted his apologies and, partly, trusted him again. Enough to steer the Bounty at least. And now he had mostly given up, residing in the control room of the Bounty, spending his time either cleaning up around the Bounty or steering them to the next destination. Honestly, he was itching to nab something or make a great sale. He wanted to get back to his pawn shop. He liked his risky life, to him, what was life if you didn't have a little fun now and again.

Now he sat whistling a tune while twirling a key in his hand, feet rested upon the dashboard of the control panel, chair rocked all the way back onto its two hind legs, and his hat pulled over his eyes. It was quite in the control room now. Pixal was gone, probably with Zane, and he had to admit that he missed the small talk they made together. They didn't have much in common, but it beat sitting awkwardly in the room together. He was bored. And he didn't like being bored so he left, waltzing down the stairs and into the lower part of the Bounty. He could hear the Ninja discussing stuff together in the room, probably about the recent ghost sightings in his pawn shop. The nerve Morro had. He was thinking about heading into the kitchen to go and get some midday snack. Nya had, apparently, the same idea.

"Hey Nya," Ronin said, walking into the room, trying not to make the encounter awkward.

"Hi, Ronin," Nya replied stiffly.

She said his name in the way that, if you paid close enough attention, would be the tone that someone would use to describe something that died, rotted, was left out in the sun, and was filled with maggots. Now that he thought of it, that was kinda how their current relationship between each other.

"Eh, wan'na have a seat?" Ronin asked, pulling a bag of potato chips out and place them on the table.

Nya just looked at him, she had also wanted to get the bag of potato chips and was debating whether or not he had taken them to annoy her. She eventually decided that he had no way of knowing and, with a humongous sigh, sat down next to him.

"Look I'mma really sorry," Ronin started.

"Save it," Nya replied, "Everything I see you, you always start with that."

"Cause that's all that I think about when I see you. And I really am sorry," Ronin chided, crunching on the chips.

"Sorry's don't fix everything," Nya told him.

"Look, I err know. I've pissed off many 'a people in my time," Ronin admitted, "But for once, I really want to make it up."

"You really do?" Nya asked turning to him.

She stared at his face, looking into his eyes, making him feel like she was looking into his soul. She could look all she wanted for all he could care, what he said was true and he meant it.

"I do," Ronin said, fiddling with the chip bag.

"Prove it," Nya said, "You're going to help us defeat Morro and you're not going to make any more deals with him. Also, I want to be able to get something from your shop whenever I want." Nya threw in slyly.

"Man, you drive a hard bargain," Ronin sighed, "But I agree."

"Great," Nya said, trusting her hand out in an offer to shake on it.

Ronin grabbed it and shook, smiling widely.

"But just to be sure..." Nya said, pulling out a long list of legal papers, "Sign here."

"Jee whizz!" Ronin exclaimed, "Can't my word me enough?"

Nya raised an eyebrow.

"Fair point," Ronin admitted, pulling out a pen.


	30. Chapter 30

"Do you think they figured it out?" Lloyd asked, flipping through the channels.

"I don't know," Cole said, "He seemed pretty hesitant."

"Hopefully they take this time alone to figure it out." Lloyd sighed.

Kai shushed them having heard the sounds of footsteps and talking heading down the steps. The watched the door expectantly, waiting for, assumably, Zane. When the walked into the door making small talk with Pixal, he was met with four pairs of eyes.

"Uh, hello guys," Zane said a little unnerved.

"What's up," Cole asked.

"Not much," Zane replied a shrug accompanying his response.

"So what's going on between you and Pixal?" Jay tried to ask as casually as he could.

Jay received an elbow from Cole in the ribs. And he saw a perfect opportunity.

"Ow Cole!" He complained on the top of his lungs, cutting in front of Zane, who had just opened his mouth to speak, "Whatever 'possessed' you to do that!"

Everyone groaned, Cole the loudest, as Jay beamed in the middle of the room, laughing at his own joke. After it had died down, Zane decided to finish, or well start, answering Jay's question.

"Well, we're back together again," Zane said, tapping the back of his head.

"That's great!" Jay said, swamping the now two in a hug.

"Ya," Zane replied, nervously running his fingers through his hair.

The team was interrupted by the urgent sound of talking from the tv. All of everyone's attention was directed towards it as Lloyd turned up the volume.

"We are here where the ghostly sightings have been reported. The town of Stiix. Here now, a house has erupted in glowing blue light. Several brave humans have already tried the door, but it locked. No ninja have been sighted here, but we are left to wonder, Are we going to be under attack from yet another villain?"

"Well, best guess, Morro is there." Kai sighed, pointing to the television screen.

"Let's tell Pixal too-" Lloyd stopped mid-sentence sending an apologetic look to Zane.

"I'll set the coordinates," Kai said, standing up and running up the stairs.

"How am I supposed to fight Morro like this?" Jay questioned, wiggling his arm and leg in their faces, "I'm not fixable like Zane."

Zane gave a little huff which no one could tell if it meant he agreed or if meant he was annoyed.

"I'm hoping you don't have to fight," Cole said.

"Me too. But if it comes to that, what do I do?" Jay asked.

"Beat them with your casts?" Lloyd suggested, "Look, we won't let it come to that. And with Morro based at Stiix, he practically hovering over his own downfall."

"Morro's cocky but not an idiot. He knows something we don't. Something that gives him the confidence to base at Stiix." Zane said stiffly.

"Like what?" Lloyd prompted.

"How should I know?" Zane shrugged.

The Bounty slowed to a halt before turning and taking off in another direction, a sign Kai had successfully set the autopilot to take them to Stiix. He returned down the stairs shortly, looking at the mixture of expressions on his friend's faces. Jay's worried, Cole's pensive, Lloyd's focused, and Zane's usual unreadable one.

"So, uh, anyone want to come up with a plan?" Kai suggested.

"Sure," Lloyd said, "Zane can you display a 3D map of Stiix?"

Zane did so, a mini holographic replica now spun slowly in front of him.

"Great." Lloyd announced, clapping his hands together, "We know Morro is probably in Ronin's old pawn shop..."


	31. Chapter 31

"You got that?" Lloyd asked Zane who was dictating the plan.

"And...yea," Zane said, finishing the digital run through of their attack strategy.

"That one took longer than normal," Cole said, looking at the clock that now read 11:23 pm.

"Agreed," Lloyd yawned, stretching his arms, "We've had a busy day. Let's hit the sack."

The others mumbled words of agreement, before slowly stumbling into their room.

"Coming?" Jay asked Zane who still stood in his corner.

"I'll join you in a minute," Zane replied, turning and walking put into the hallway of the Bounty.

"Ok," Jay yawned, "Don't be too late. I know you don't need to sleep that much but it's better for your processors."

"Sure," Zane smiled slightly, climbing the stairs and walking out on the moonlit deck.

Zane gave a little sigh, placing both hands on the railing at the edge of the flying ship.

"You should really go to bed, Zane" Pixal worried.

"I'm fine," Zane assured her.

"You know as well as I that sleep is important," Pixal stated.

"I know," Zane answered.

"So how come you don't get some rest? It doesn't make sense?" Pixal responded.

"Look, when you find that you'll likely never have control over your own life, your own self, it's hard. We have to admit that our lives are dangerous and that with every fight we go into we can't guarantee that we're going to come back out. So we need to spend our time planning and training so that we don't die, not diddle dallying."

"Sleeping is not diddle dallying," Pixal said.

"You know what I mean." Zane huffed.

"But you need breaks." Pixal countered, "People need time to be themselves and relax. Let loose a bit."

"But we're not people. I'm not a person. And I never want to feel out of control like that again. So, I'm going to do everything that I can to prevent it." Zane growled.

"You need to rest, it's been a long day." Pixal coaxed, trying to get Zane to calm down.

"I need to train," Zane said, pulling his pair of shurikens out from a rack of weapons.

"Everyone's sleeping." Pixal tried to reason.

"So? I'm a ninja, right. Ninjas are silent." Zane grumbled, throwing a shuriken at a training dummy.

* * *

Cole woke to the smell of breakfast cooking, which practically dragged him from his bed. The usual morning consisted of a cup of coffee and whatever he could round up from last nights leftovers. But, he couldn't wait for breakfast as he pulled a pair of shorts on and booked it to the kitchen. Close on his heels were his brothers who were eager to eat breakfast too.

They filed into the kitchen, pulling chairs and sitting at the perfectly set table.

"Morning," Zane called, flipping the last of the Belgian waffles.

"That smells delicious," Lloyd breathed.

"And they're done," Zane said, turning off the fire.

He stacked the serving platters across his arms and carried them over to the table.

"I made Belgian waffles with omelets cooked with the ingredients you each liked," Zane said, placing them on the table.

He hadn't even gotten them down before the crowds of forks attacked the platters.

"I haven't even told you which omelet is yours!" Zane exclaimed.

"Don't worry, we'll figure it out," Cole assured him through a mouthful.

Zane sighed though was slightly amused by his brother's antics.

"Here," Zane said, handing Jay a pair of wooden crutches.

"Finally!" Jay exclaimed, snatching them from his hands, "Where did you get these?!"

"I made them," Zane told him, already starting to clean up the kitchen.

"Clean later, come eat with us," Kai called, wolfing down another Belgian waffle.

Zane whipped his hands on a towel, took off his apron and sat down at the table.

"What did you make these from?" Jay asked.

"Cole's scythe," Zane stated, pulling a waffle onto his place.

"What!?" Cole exclaimed.

"I'm joking." Zane laughed, "I picked out a log when we were passing through a forest."

"When did we pass over a forest?" Kai asked.

"Sometime in the middle of the night. It was on an island. I just jumped off and picked one up." Zane recounted, picking up his knife.

"Did you get enough sleep last night?" Jay asked.

"Umm, yes," Zane said, deciding it was better for Jay not to worry.

"Okay, good," Jay said, turning back to his food.

"Wonder where my mom and Sensei Wu are," Lloyd asked.

("Ninalb kinda forgot they existed." Kai said)

"They probably are still sleeping," Kai said.

"I've gotta wake up Nya before the food gets cold," Kai said, excusing himself from the table.

Cole let out a loud burp before pushing his chair back from the table.

"That was amazing." Cole said, placing the dishes by the sink, "Thank god I figured out how to eat."

"Don't bother washing them, I'll clean them with the pots and pans," Zane told him.

"Wasn't going to," Cole smiled, "Plus, I'm a ghost, how could I. Man you must be distracted."

"Sorry," Zane apologized, only to get a laugh from Cole.

"No need to apologize Frosty," Cole laughed.

"Can you take my plate for me?" Jay asked.

"Yep," Cole said, scooping it off the table.

Jay got up carefully positioning the crutches so that it wouldn't bump into the cast in his arm.

"I can finally move," Jay smiled.

"Thanks, Zane," Lloyd said, placing his dishes next to Cole's, "Join us for some training upstairs when you're done,"

"Of course," Zane smiled, carrying his plate to the sink.

"I'm going to save these for Sensei Wu and Misako," Zane told Pixal, "It seems that they have developed the tendency to sleep in while I've been gone."

"Yes," Pixal agreed.

It didn't take Zane long to clean up the kitchen and have it looking better than when he came in. He ran out of the kitchens, eager to continue training.


	32. Chapter 32

**Hey, guys! I'm back! Well, I was never gone, I was just busy with my cousins being here. Ugh, you know how people look at a picture, that honestly looks fine, and have been looking at it for so long that they think it's terrible? Well, I had a moment of "this story really sucks and I have made an abomination," not saying that any of you have a bad taste. Each chapter is fine, but like when you put it all together it's just meh. I don't know, I mean, I guess I feel like I just had so much potential for this story and it could have been better. IDK, maybe I've just been longing at the picture for too long. Anyways, I know you guys give me a lot of support and I'm going to try to shape this up with a final finale finally. ;D** **And try to make it as much as the perfect story that I want it to be. OKAY! REVIEW TIME!**

 **Guest-** ** _Great_**

 **EchoMoonFrost- A** _ **wwwww thanks. And by the way, I already have ;)**_

 **StoriesAreMagic- _Ya, sometimes after something goes wrong or a traumatic event, people's views change. What they value and how they think they should spend their time through their life. And Zane, in my eyes, being a human or human enough, has changed from the experience._**

* * *

"Hey Zane," Lloyd said, noticing his arrival, "We're doing a little sparring tournament like old times. Care to join us?"

"Of course," Zane said.

"Great, you're against Cole," Lloyd assigned.

"You just want to fight me since you know that I'll go easy on you," Kai taunted.

"Well, I won't go easy on you," Lloyd challenged sticking his tongue out.

"What a kid," Kai laughed.

"What can I say? I'm a child trapped in a teenager's body." Lloyd chuckled.

"When does the match end?" Zane asked Cole.

"Uh, like usual," Cole said.

"You're a ghost. You are already dead. There is no way for me to win under the original rules." Zane said.

"Hmm," Cole mumbled, "How about when one of your shurikens go through me. It'll be like the aeroblades."

"Sound good." Zane agreed.

"Want to start off slow since you're just getting back into it?" Cole asked.

"Nope," Zane assured him, "Everything's functional. I don't need much recuperation time."

"Okay then," Cole said, twirling his scythe around his back skillfully.

Zane stood there empty handed, but Cole knew better. Zane's shurikens were never to be seen until they hit you. That's what made fighting the nindroid tricky. Zane practically materialized the things from thin air. However, his defensive stance looked relaxed but never left anything open.

Cole shot forward, practically flying across the floor. He neared the nindroid, scythe already in position to swing, but before the last second, he airjitsued into the air, now high above the nindroid. He fired a couple blasts of rocks at the nindroid, who stared at him from the ground.

With a stretch of his hand, the rocks bounced off a dome of ice, most shattering from the impact. Meanwhile, Kai and Lloyd had stopped fighting to watch.

"Who do you bet will win?" Kai asked Lloyd.

"Zane, $10. Also, when did Cole get his powers back?" Lloyd answered.

"Great, cause I bet $10 on Cole and I don't know. We'll ask him later." Kai answered.

Cole spun through the air, landing his scythe on the ice dome, shattering it, but the nindroid had already slipped from under it. Two shurikens spun at him, one coming from each direction. Cole dove into his scythe, possessing his weapon.

"Zane's in trouble now," Kai whispered to Lloyd, "Get ready to lose Lloyd."

The scythe swung towards Zane who deftly knocked it back with his shurikens. Undeterred the scythe swung back in forth, sliding into slice after slice. Zane blocked and dodge them, bouncing on light feet. Zane crossed his shurikens to block an attack, the Cole Scythe swung into them sideways, knocking the nindroid back. Taking the momentum, he slid on his knees under the floating scythe. He grabbed it and slammed it to the ground. Pinning it between his feet. Zane was going strike his shurikens through it when it threw him off.

"Super strength," The scythe told him, while Zane could imagine the triumphant smile on Cole's face.

Zane twirled into the air, landing his Olympic gymnastics skill on steady feet.

"Not bad," Zane commented.

Cole reappeared holding his scythe. He swung it over his shoulder, twirling it in the air like it was a baton. Zane was watching him, a little amused, obviously a bit distracted.

Abandoning his scythe in the air, Cole's hand shot forwards and caught Zane's sleeve. Zane had tried to stumble backward to avoid him, but it wasn't quick enough. Cole flipped Zane over his shoulder, the nindroid landing on the deck with a clank, shurikens sliding from his grasp, and the scythe landing next to him with a thunk. Cole pulled his scythe from the wood of the Bounty and before he could get in front of Zane's face, a shuriken went clean through his chest.

"What!?" Cole stammered, "How!?"

"I have more than two shurikens," Zane shrugged, pushing himself up from the ground.

"Oooooh!" Lloyd yelled from the side," Pay up Kai."

"Only if you beat me in the match," Kai smirked, "But that should be easy for the legendary Green Ninja."

"Totally!" Lloyd yelled, "I always win."

"You two are even," Zane recounted.

"Where do you even keep these shurikens?" Cole asked.

"I've always got two in my pocket," Zane answered, picking up his three shurikens and placing two of them back into his secret pockets.

"But," Zane said, pressing in his arm, to reveal a collection of five other shurikens hidden in his hand and wrist, "I've got a few others. And I can launch them from my hand."

Zane placed the sixth one in the pile and pressed it shut.

"It was so cool!" Lloyd said.

"I've gotta see this," Cole said.

"It's not that amazing. You saw me shoot explosive shurikens before. It's exactly the same." Zane explained.

"How many shurikens are in you?!" Cole asked, astonished that for someone who seemed so peaceful, he sure did have a lot of weapons.

"I'm pretty sure I've got around 15 of them. Including the explosives and not the ones in my pockets." Zane counted.

"Shoot! Shoot! Shoot!" Kai cheered.

"Okay, but I'm telling you it's not that cool," Zane said.

A hole opened in his hand and two shurikens shot out of it, spinning so fast that it was a blur. They made a wide circle before getting caught out of the air by Zane. He placed them back into their compartment.

"See not that cool," Zane said.

"So you can shoot ice and shurikens!? That so cool!" Jay said, finally making it up the stairs.

"I thought you were taking a nap," Kai asked.

"It's hard to sleep with all the commotion going on up here," Jay explained, "But when did you get your powers back?"

Cole shrugged, "For a while, kinda just woke up a couple days ago and bam, rocks. I was having a really bad dream. One of those that you jump up believing that you're still in the world that your dream created. I didn't really want to tell anyone because that would mean that Kai would be the only one without his powers back."

"What?!" Jay shrieked, "I had to go through a traumatizing experience and you just have a nightmare?!"

Cole gave Jay an apologetic look accompanied by a casual shrug.

"Aw man," Kai whined, a dejected look on his face "That does means that I'm the last one."

"We'll see if we can get them to turn on or something like that in our fight. Maybe I'll try to kill you. That might make it work." Lloyd suggested.

"Wow thanks," Kai mumbled.

"You can try to be like Morro," Cole suggested, hovering over them, "Oooh, you don't have any powers. You're so weak. I'm going to summon my Preeminent thingy and you're all going to run away like cowards. I'm going to get your brother to kill you. OOOOOOooooh."

"That sounds nothing like Morro," Zane told him, trying to conceal a smile.

"I don't know. I think I did a good job," Cole replied.

"I agree." Lloyd laughed.

"We're going to have to wait," Jay told them, "Cause we arrive at Stiix in 10 minutes."


	33. Chapter 33

**I'm back with another post! Not much else to say...**

 **Zaptrap-** **** ** _Aw thanks. I hope I get better. Maybe one day I'll rewrite the whole thing and make it better. That's a big task though._**

 **FanArt Samurai-** ** _I agree. What's next is the epic battle of Ninja and ghosts._**

 **StoriesAreMagic-** ** _Thanks, I try to make it interesting. Sometimes it hard to get the same epic battle in our head out into words._**

* * *

Zane stared at the little speck in the distance named the town of Stiix. He gave a half hearted groan and flicked possible states of the town's condition through his mind hoping that they got the best rather than the worse. The flying ship neared the port but came to a stop about a mile away.

"We're basing here," Cole informed, "We'll try to pull the hood over him with the element of surprise."

"Ohhh! A new member?!" Jay clapped, enjoying the annoyed groans he got from his companions.

Zane couldn't help but smile at Jay's antics.

"Ready?" Pixal asked.

"Don't think I'll ever be," Zane sighed.

"Ready?" Cole asked, putting a hand on his shoulder.

Zane gave an inward sigh. Sometimes he really wished that his brothers could hear Pixal.

"Sure," Zane said halfheartedly.

"I know it's going to be hard but we'll all be there for you," Cole assured him.

Zane's fingers drummed the wooden rail of the Bounty. He studied the outline of the city, matching it to the diagram in his head. They were on the South side, just like they planned. Cole took it that the nindroid wanted space and left to join the rest of the team that was talking in quiet, anxious voices.

It was afternoon, the sun pelting all with its glorious heat. When was it the best time for a life or death fight? In the morning? When the sun was starting the long journey across the sky, where the night's peace still graced the earth, where the bird's sung their chicks awake? The night, where the sun sunk down into the horizon, casting colorful colors once more into the sky, where the moon could be seen followed by each perfect star? How about the afternoon, the middle of both, where the sun was at its highest point, everything was in movement and everyone in the middle of their daily lives?

"Zane!" Jay yelled, tapping his shoulder.

"What?!" Zane jumped, whirling around.

"Sorry, didn't mean to 'spook' you," Jay chuckled, "You were zoned out."

"Oh," Zane smiled lightly at the joke.

"We leave in ten," Jay sighed, swinging expertly around on his crutches.

"Okay," Zane answered.

"Zane, I suggest that we go and spend some time to reassess the plan with the team," Pixal advised him.

"Okay," Zane agreed.

"Not feeling too talkative?" Pixal wondered.

"Not really," Zane replied, "But it is best to go over the plan."

Stifling a yawn, Zane wandered over to his brothers.

"Guys," Zane called quickly gathering everyone's attention.

"What's up Frosty?" Cole asked.

"We should go over the battle plans once more," Zane said grabbing a seat next to them.

"That sounds like a plan," Jay laughed.

"Yes. Yes, it is." Zane said a little confused.

"Anyways, we know that Sensei Wu, Nya, Ronin, Misako, and Jay are staying in the Bounty." Zane recounted, "They will be there for the second part of the plan, aside from Jay. The rest of us will assess how man ghosts reside in the town and where the townsfolk are. And whether or not Morro succeeded in releasing the Preeminent. But we are acting upon the accounts that the Preeminent has not yet been released.

We shouldn't vaniquish too many ghosts to avoid drawing attention to ourselves. Instead we should head straight to Ronin's old pawnshop, traveling beneath the structure of the town. That way we aren't easily spotted. When we get in there, we have to deal with Morro and his ghosts, the rest of you dealing with them while me and Cole get the realm crystal. We shut the portal and prevent the Preeminent from getting through. After that, Nya's crew will wash out the rest of the ghosts, sending them back to the cursed realm with no way to return. That's the basics of it anyways." Zane concluded.

"Yep," Lloyd nodded.

"So are we ready?" Zane asked.

"Let's go save the world. Again." Kai said in a voice that would sound quite heroic and fitting in a movie.


	34. Chapter 34

**'Ello! Next shipment of words is here! Today we got a new computer. Not for me though. For my sister. Still happy with mine. It's 7 years old and still running fine. Anyways, I hope you enjoy!**

* * *

Zane carefully treaded water, signaling to his brothers after running a scan. Kai was on the back of Lloyd's energy dragon, which swam in the water instead, the fire ninja not willing to touch it. Cole was also riding, more like floating, along with the dragon's back, for obvious reasons. With a huff, Lloyd hoisted Cole up onto the support structures that held up the town of Stiix. Meanwhile, Zane climbed up the long wooden poles that extended in the water. They crouched there unable to stand up with space allotted, as Lloyd's dragon paddled up to them.

They both helped Kai up as he wiggled trying to put the most distance between him and the water. Lloyd was up next as his dragon disappeared into a puff of smoke. Or energy. Or whatever his dragon was made up of.

They flipped and swung among the wooden boards, following Zane as he had the blueprints and knew the place like the back of his hand. Zane suddenly paused, the other three halting behind him.

"What's wrong?" Kai asked.

"Uh, nothing," Zane replied, continuing.

They continued among the boards, Lloyd feeling more like a squirrel or rat than a ninja, when Zane almost slipped from the structure. Cole caught him by the collar of his gi, hoisting the ninja back up.

"Gotcha buddy," Cole whispered to him.

Zane nodded his appreciation, before continuing on. It was not long before Zane halted once more.

"There's..." Zane started, his whispered voices faded off at the ended.

"What?" Lloyd wondered.

"I thought it was just the area I was in, but it's stronger now." Zane worried, glancing up at the wooden boards which drew lines of light across his face.

"Care to clue us in?" Kai asked.

"A magnetic pull. Must be a crane or something." Zane said, tapping his head as if to clear up some static.

"Do you think it's a trap?" Kai asked.

"Hmm. It's a little too weak currently to really be of any affect. It only slightly changes the normal physics for me. Hence why I slipped," Zane considered, "I think we should keep going. It's now or never. The Preeminent isn't on the loose yet but knowing Morro, it will probably be soon."

His brothers exchanged looks of concern that Zane totally noticed before giving him a slight nod. They would continue forward. They would trust Zane's instincts.

Zane bit back a little sigh. He had lied to them. Pixal shifted uncomfortably in his mainframe, unused to him lying. She said nothing though, whether she could tell it wouldn't do any good or whether she understood the reason for his lie, he wouldn't know.

" _It's better this way_ ," He told himself, " _This way they wouldn't worry. It's my concern. I'll deal with it._ "

Zane surged on before stopping one last time. They were right outside Ronin's former pawnshop used for buy, stealing, and selling priceless or illegal items, now Morro's current base for taking over the world. They were practically the same thing. Zane pressed up against the wooden board, it giving a slight creak from the pressure. With a push of a button, his finger uncapped to reveal a small hammer, which he used to pry the nails from the board.

Still holding it in place, Zane signaled to his brothers, " _Go up_ ,"

He removed the board and they leaped up, little blurs as they retreated into the ally right next to it. Zane was last, replacing the board carefully so it hung loosely in its position. He could feel the pull of the Magnet. His brothers were noticing it too despite his best attempts to hide it. He was being dragged towards the house and to prevent this he was pressed up against the wall, heels digging into the wooden boards.

"Maybe it's best if you stay here?" Lloyd suggested, noticing the nindroid's obvious strain.

" _Should I?_ " Zane thought, " _What if this is the trap? What if this is what Morro wants? Or what if the trap really is inside? What if both options are a trap?_ "

"Uh," Zane said, his brain running in circles.

Too late to answer. His brothers were gone, slipping their plan into action. The question was more of a command than a request. Zane gave a little sigh and leaned further into the wall of the house beside the pawnshop.


	35. Chapter 35

**Meh, I feel like this chapter could have been better but I just don't know really what I should do to this to make it better. Oh well, maybe one day I will figure it out and update it. Till now, it is what it is. Anyways, enjoy!**

* * *

Cole took a gentle push against the door of the pawn shop, sliding through the door eventually. He sank into the floor, looking for ghosts or anything else that could clue him off to where Morro was. He couldn't seem to see the giant magnet that was constantly tugging Zane towards it. But no matter how calm Zane had looked, he was being pulled by it and by the looks of it, had he gotten much closer, he would have been sucked straight to it.

Cole scanned the clearing. It seemed to be all hollowed out. However, there could have been ghosts possessing other items in the room that he couldn't see.

" _Great, I'll never truly know,_ " Cole mentally sighed.

The realm crystal was there all right. If the multicolored light display didn't clue you off, then the giant looming portal, a cloudy blue and gray mixtures, in the air would.

Cole reappeared in front of his brothers, giving them the "All's clear but stay alerted," signal.

They quietly slipped into the shack, watching each other's back, making a move towards the crystal.

* * *

Zane's head jerked up, eyes glowing brighter than ever. His sixth sense was telling him something. He focused on the feeling trying to figure out what it meant and get some details on what it was trying to warn him about.

Having a sixth sense wasn't like being able to see the future, it was a feeling, something that you could tell in our gut. It was a hard feeling to describe, something that could more or less be called a pang, but not in a painful way. Maybe like you swallowed a stone and the feeling of the weight in your stomach could be a close enough comparison to the feeling.

Something very wrong was going to happen. It was a sickening feeling that made him feel like his wires were twisting into a knot. He ran after his brothers, he only had this feeling once, when the overlord had everyone tangled in his web. Someone was going to die if he didn't do something.

Zane burst into the shack, instinctively tackling Cole, who gave a little yelp.

A whiz followed by a rush of air ended with a resounding THWACK against the wooden wall. Zane looked up to see a golden lined aeroblade embedded in the wood behind him.

"What?" Cole could only manage to pat himself down, glad he wasn't reduced to a puddle of jelly.

A withered cackle came from the back wall as Morro entered the room. The ghost hadn't changed in physical appearance since ghosts couldn't really. But he definitely looked worn out. Zane could sense the tired aura wafting around the ghost, the non-stop planning and work to perfect the town for the Preeminent was taking a toll on him. Not to mention some of the ghosts didn't get along well together and others didn't respect him enough to let him lead the Preeminent into the realm.

"Welcome," Morro laughed, "To the birth of my empire. Like the tapestries?"

Morro floated over and gestured to the long banners that hung from the walls.

"Is that Kai on fire?" Lloyd asked, raising an eyebrow at one of the tapestries.

"Burning alive," Morro corrected, "I think it's quite fitting for the fire ninja to go down in flames. Or to burn out."

"Kai's already accidentally lit himself on fire. He's actually lit us all on fire at one point in time." Lloyd sighed.

"They were all accidents!" Kai protested.

"Real professional guys," Cole murmured.

"And looks like 'Tin can' finally joined the party." Morro sneered, "I thought was going to have to go after you."

Zane winced at Morro's use of his nickname. With his brothers, it was a playful sort of sense, but in the hands of Morro, it felt like an insult.

The ninja's heads whipped down towards the noise of the wood straining. The boards started to tear up from the ground, ripping into the sky. With a heave, the ground of Ronin's shop was ripped from the floor, spinning up into the sky.

"There," Morro panted, "That should give us no distractions."

The top of Ronin's shop had been cleaved off, the debris of what remained orbited them in the air. Everything was suspended, most of the ninja wondering how Morro could pull off a feat such as this.

"Come on guys, this may not be the original plan, but we still gotta get our hands on the Realm Crystal," Cole urged his teammates.

"Like the new floor?" Morro asked noticing how sluggish Zane moving.

Zane was tiring quickly, what Morro didn't know was that constantly fighting against the magnet's pull and lack of sleep was quickly draining the nindroid. He almost couldn't stand, correction he couldn't stand. He slowly sunk to the ground, giving way to the pull of the magnet. With a frustrated huff, he tried to pull his hands under his chest and attempt to push himself back up. However, there was no way for the nindroid to complete his task. His titanium body wouldn't let go of its attraction for a second. So there he lay, splayed out on the ground like someone's discarded doll.

Zane looked towards his girlfriend's face waiting for her to tell him that she told him so. She stared back at him, her expression unreadable. She deciding what to say.

"It's okay Zane. I'm right here," she finally said with a smile.

"Thank you," He told her, relieved.

They were in this together if Morro got Zane, then he got the both of them.


	36. Chapter 36

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

 **Hey guys, I sorry for not posting as recently. Really barely at all. To be honest, although affected a little by the fact of the Summer, I also have been losing interest in this story. Not that I don't intend to finish it. I promise that I will finish it. I mean, no matter what I am definitely going to finish it. I've come too far not too. Also, I get so annoyed when authors are writing great stories and just stop writing them. But that's why I haven't been so frequently posting and why they have been small in general.**

 **I think the real mistake was starting the story that is coming after this one. It slowly has stolen more writing time from this one and it isn't even being posted...yet. I mean this overall story has reached 86 chapters over the span of 302 days, or 9 months and 29 days. And for everyone who has traveled along since the beginning, thank you.**

* * *

 **FlickingCandle-** ** _Awwww, thanks. You made my day._**

 **PixelatedNinjas- _Hope this one is as exciting as the last one!_**

 **StoriesAreMagic- _My family exactly. Also at least someone is getting something out of your struggles Zane. Like I say, if you can't get anything out of a situation, you mise as well get a laugh out of it. And I love the meme! (cough cough) I've never watched High School Musical, and I'm in high school. Although I sing so much my sister says that I am in High School Musical, either that or a Disney movie._**

* * *

Zane let out a quiet, defeated whine.

" _All this training for nothing. All this time spent on worthless training. In the end, it's my own body that brings me down. Stupid, stupid, stupid._ " Zane cursed himself.

"Well, ain't this a pretty sight. One 'down', three more to go," Morro laughed at his own joke, twirling in the air.

Had Jay been there he probably would have joked about Morro being a ballerina and brought that picture to all of their minds.

Morro lunged at the nindroid, pulling his classic duel swords from their sheaths around his waist. A resounding clang was heard as Cole's scythe intercepted the attack, the sheer momentum causing both ghosts to take a couple steps back.

"Hey, we've got your back," Kai said, leaning down and scooping under his arms to help pull the Zane to his feet.

Cole grabbed his other arm and helped too, slinging his arm over his shoulder.

Morro didn't wait for another second as he attacked them, diving through the floor. He appeared behind them, Lloyd sliding in the way to cover them. Lloyd advanced on him, swing his sword. Up, down, across, backhand, jab, parry, slice. In his other hand, he held his aeroblade, poised and ready for the perfect moment. But first to take care of the sword. Disarm then defeat.

* * *

"This is not going to plan," Jay murmured, jaw dropping Ronin's pawn shop broken off from the ground.

"We need to get out there!" Nya said, staring over the side of the Bounty.

What she really meant was " _I need to get to my brother_ ".

But they were far away, very far away. Centered in the middle of the town, which was now saturated with ghouls.

"Guess that's my call," Jay said, leaping over the side safety railing.

A gigantic dragon's face reappeared over the railings, Jay saddled on its back.

"One dragon taxi for Mrs. Nya," Jay said.

The Bounty sagged from the weight as the dragon hung from one side.

"Hey, off." Jay scold him like he would a puppy, "You're going to capsize our flying ship!"

With a begrudging huff, the dragon let go.

"I'm not sure this is a good idea, Jay," Nya said nervously.

"What do you mean?" Jay answered trying and failing not to look hurt.

"You know," Nya said, gesturing to his arm and leg.

"I'm a ninja first. Injured next," Jay said, offering her a hand, "I'm going either way."

Nya sighed, " _That's not how life works, Jay. You're still injured no matter what._ "

Still, she took his hand and clambered onto his dragon.

"Let's go kick some butt!" Jay yipped, steering his dragon with the reigns.

They were there in a minute tops. The large wings of the lightning dragon were meant for flying at high altitudes and with great speed. The dragon came to rest on the dock, making an uneasy rumbling sound.

"I don't see anything..." Jay said, patting the dragon's head, "But I know you do."

"So what's the plan?" Nya said, hoping Jay didn't just rush out into this, "Please say you have a plan."

"This is the plan," Jay said, pointing to his dragon.

"Didn't this go bad last time, with Zane?" Nya reminded.

"But this time we have you," Jay said matter of factly, "And you can dissolve ghosts with ease."

Nya gave a sigh. This was a lot of trust in her powers. Powers that she didn't trust herself.

" _If only it was just as easy as being the Samurai. This is so going to end badly. But it's better than doing nothing I guess._ " She decided.

Jay's dragon lunged forwards, digging and ripping up wooden boards.

"Woah!" Jay yelled, who was almost knocked off. The only thing that prevented him from was the fact that Nya had practically pulled him back onto the dragon.

The dragon came up with a large board in its mouth. With a crunch, he snapped it in his mouth.

A high pitched whine was heard as a ghost dropped from the board. Nya was quick to douse it with water before it could do anything.

"See?" Jay smiled.

* * *

Lloyd tumbled down the wooden boards trying to not land/impale himself on his sword. Coming to a sliding stop, he hissed feeling rug burns stinging his knees and palms.

"A little topsy turvy?" Morro snickered.

"What ever happened to level playing field?" Lloyd coughed.

Morro had literally used the floating platform to his advantage. He spun it, tilted it, twisted it, and occasionally broke pieces off of it. Constantly was moving it, making it difficult for the green ninja to get close to him, much less get a strike.

Lloyd gathered his sword, feeling like he was on fire. Thousands of rug burns had made themselves a home from all the sliding around he had been doing. He blinked rapidly, trying to clear the blood from his eyes, the rest he wiped away with his hand. A slice above eyes in the middle of his forehead. Not to deep but it still stung. A Lucky shot from Morro in exchange for one of his duel swords. After that Morro hadn't let Lloyd have the chance to get close again.

Squeezing the handle, he stood back up panting. This was harder than he thought. The whole 'being in the air and trying not to fall to your death' thing was making things a lot harder than need be.

He eyed Morro, looking for any way to get to him before he could spin the platform away from him. Nothing, there was nothing. Still, he had to do something. The town, the world was counting on him to do something. Save the world again. Anyway way that you can.

Lloyd blasted ice into a slide like shape, sliding around on it, building up speed as he continued to glide across its surfaces. If only he had fire, he would be able to coat everything with ice and then melt it into water with fire. Lloyd launched off the ice, aeroblade poised for the strike.

Morro's eyes were following him like a baseball player's follow the ball. Right as Lloyd approached him, he spun the platform, and he wasn't standing in front of Lloyd anymore. He spun it all the way back around again, and then he was right behind Lloyd. He jabbed the hilt of the sword into Lloyd's stomach, then platform rotated, and he was all the way back across at the other side.

Lloyd staggered backward holding his stomach, almost tripping over his own feet. However, he managed to pull himself up and get back into a fighting stance.

"Ooh, close." Morro laughed.

He spun the platform, Lloyd stabbing his sword into the boards to prevent from being flung off.

"Ooh, green ninja looking a little green?" Morro mocked.

The spinning came to a stop only for a gust of air to launch Lloyd up into the air. Lloyd spun up there for a second before he landed on the back of his energy dragon. He was on his feet in a second and three shots of energy were barreling down out of the sky. Morro stood there undeterred as it went through him and exploded on the boards.

"Desperate," Morro snickered.

Next thing Lloyd knew it was that a sharp wall of air came down on him, smacking him and his dragon onto the ground. His dragon disappeared into wisps of green energy and left Lloyd on the ground trying to figure out if he was still alive.

Lloyd swallowed hard. He was alive and he had to get up.

" _Get up_ ," Lloyd urged himself, " _The world needs you. You can't go down after a couple hits. You're the green ninja. You have to be strong._ "

He wheezed slightly pushing himself to his feet.

"Hold Zane, I'm going out there." Kai said, pushing the nindroid completely onto the black ninja.

"Ya, go get him," Cole assured him.

Kai was tired of this. Tired of watching Lloyd repeatedly be switched to a completely different via Morro's tricks. And tiredness was quickly building into anger. Hot, boiling anger. Anger that wanted to burn anyone to the ground that hurt his friends, his brothers, his teammates.

He ran over to Lloyd, letting him lean on him despite his attempts to assure him that he was okay.

"Aw look, it's the fire ninja. Still, haven't unlocked all your powers haven't you. Poor baby. Oooooh must be 'haunting' to know that you're a let down again." Morro cackled.

"Never! I'm just as strong without my powers! I don't need them to defeat you." Kai exclaimed.

" _Not that I could have used them against you anyway._ " Kai silently finished.

"But because of you, Lloyd used every element except fire. He could have made water. And then there was a possibility that he could have defeated me with that water. But because of you, he can't. And now he's barely hanging on to consciousness." Morro explained.

"Told you Morro sounded like that," Cole said, elbowing Zane.

Zane gave him a look that said all too clearly, " _Real mature, Cole_ ".

"Don't listen to him Kai," Lloyd said.

Kai dove at Morro's legs aeroblade readied. Morro blocked it, using airjitsu to fly out of Lloyd's attack. Kai landed on one side of the platform, while Lloyd was on the other. Morro lightly touched down on the platform again, trying to keep an eye on Lloyd and Kai at the same time. Kai and Lloyd both lunged for the ghost, however, the battlefield started to spin once again. Lloyd crashed into Kai. They both tumbled into a heap as the platform picked up more speed. They didn't have the chance to even think about holding on before they were flung off the platform, saved by Cole, who had reached up to grab them both. Zane around one arm, Kai and Lloyd in another.

They quickly recovered using their weapons to dig a holding spot. The platform came to a lurching stop, Lloyd firing shots of all the elements at Morro.

Morro just laughed as they passed through him as he floated down from the sky.

"You can't touch me," Morro laughed, "I'm like a god. Untouchable, unkillable."

Morro swung his sword, slicing once at Lloyd before trying to get a slash at Kai. They both battled, trying to get strikes in, but Morro would spin the platform again, and they would be whisked into the air.

"Hurg," Kai huffed annoyed.

"I know," Lloyd said, ignoring the crushing pain in his chest.

"You good if I leave you here?" Cole asked.

" _Not really a question,_ " Zane thought.

"Sure, I'll be fine," Zane told him.

Cole gave him an appreciated nod and leaped into the battle.


	37. Chapter 37

**Hey, good god I haven't uploaded in so long. I'm so sorry. With the upcoming school year, I am hoping to get back into the swing of things. I haven't started school yet. Haha to all the people who started this week. I start next Tuesday.**

 **Anyways, this is a little important fact. The energy dragons and ghosts can touch each other as if they were physical beings. They cannot pass through each other like they can with mortals and other objects. They both cannot possess the same thing at once. They usually kick the other one out. Not that anyone asked but just wanna clarify without having one character explain it because that is very boring and plot breaking.**

* * *

Jay and Nya were plowing through town. Ghosts chasing them down on all sides. The electric dragon was pounding down the town of Stiix trying to make its way to the floating platform. The ghosts presented a little bit of a challenge. Okay, a bit more of a challenge than Jay had expected. He felt like this was a hydra task. For everyone that Nya melted hordes more replaced it, trying to bring the ninja down. For every swing of aeroblade, there were a million more ready to replace the one.

"I don't know how much longer I can do this," Nya panted.

"Come on Nya," Jay encouraged, catching his aeroblade and swinging it once again.

It wasn't long before the ghosts had cornered them into a five-foot ring. And it was getting smaller and smaller.

"Up," Jay whispered to his dragon, who was busy clawing down ghosts.

His dragon's wings snapped open, and with one sharp, powerful stroke they shot into the air. The dragon soared into the air, its wings of lightning lighting up the area around them.

It wasn't fast enough, the ghosts followed like a sentient green stream. A stream of reaching, groping hands that wailed and whined after them.

The dragon's large wings beat fast, it's streamlined body shooting through the air, dragging tears from both of their eyes due to the speed. It twirled and spun, trying to get the ghosts off their tails before abandoning its tactic and shooting straight up into the air.

"Faster!" Nya yelled, spraying water at the ghost stream, which seemed to do nothing.

"Come on boy," Jay said, patting it with his good hand.

Both Jay and his dragon were starting to feel exhausted from the sudden chase. Jay was about to suggest letting gravity free fall them down instead when there was a jerk. A ghost had caught the dragon's tail and more grabbed onto it. Thousands of hands found a hold on the tail and pulled. With a roar, Nya, Jay, and his dragon were thrown back to the ground.

* * *

"It's amazing that all three of you are on me and you still can't land a blow," Morro panted, swinging his one sword back and forth to block all of the aeroblades coming at him.

The platform spun and Kai and Lloyd were whipped away, leaving just Cole and Morro.

"Come on ghost boy," Morro taunted, shooting up into the air, "Show me what you got."

Cole shot after Morro, swinging his aeroblade. Morro promptly partied it but Cole was already moving into another swing. The clanks of metal rang out, barely seconds apart from each other.

They were moving at unbelievable speeds, having no bodies to slow them down. And also not needing to abide by the laws of physics. In between the clanks were swipes and kicks, exchanged between the two. All of them missing. Until Cole found the opportunity to sock Morro in the face, causing him to tumble back. Cole followed him up, slinging his aeroblade at him. But Morro promptly dodged, kicking Cole down.

He spun and landed feet first on the platform with a thud. The wind howled and tried to push him off, but he fought through it. Kai and Lloyd were by his side, trying to get aim at the airborne ghost.

Lloyd pushed Cole's aeroblade back into his hands, having caught its rebound. Then There was a boom, shaking the town of Stiix. The wind died down almost immediately and they could hear the laughter of Morro raining down on them.

"You're too late!" Morro cackled, "She's coming! Oh, now we can start the rebirth of my glorious realm!"

"Oh god, not now," Lloyd groaned feeling very overwhelmed.

Thousands of ghost roaming the town, not being able to fight Morro due to his cheating tactics, and now, the Preeminent.

"Destiny can not just give us a break," Kai growled.

"I've got your break right here," Cole said.

There was a scream. One unearthly scream that was filled with a mixture of shock and rage. A scream of indescribable pain. It was followed up with a whimper.

Cole caught his aeroblade, it now slick with a greenish goup. The same liquid started to drop down from the sky as they look up. There were the last bits of Morro, desolidating right before their eyes. He looked at them in shock, a mixture of rage, pain, and sadness swirling in his eyes. His face then hardened as he locked eyes with the one who had done this to him.

"I will get-" Morro snarled before the rest of him dripped to the floor, now a green puddle at their feet.

* * *

He could see the sky, then the town of Stiix, the sky, then Stiix, then the sky again. They started to merge together as Jay spun in the air. He tried to get himself to stop so he could at least see Nya or his dragon but couldn't.

Then there was the shock of cold water, and the painful slap of a belly flop multiplied by a thousand. Jay could only sink in shock for a second before attempting to swim. He tried to make calculated strokes up but found that his casts wouldn't allow him to bend his arm and leg not even to save his life. And slowly his attempted swimming was reduced to flailing as panic started to surge over him in nauseating waves of increased intensity.

The pressue was building up in his chest, in his lungs and god it was unbearable. He felt like he was going to explode, he had to get back to the surface, take a breath of fresh air and think, " _Man, I almost didn't make it there_ ".

His paddling started to slow down, an absent-minded attempt once in a while. And then he stopped. He glanced at the top of the water, noting its similarity to how it looked when Morro broke his arm and threw him into the river. Morro had condemned him to drown. Not that day but another. He stared at the glimmering surface of the water, the water warped sky, and the bubbles that rushed past him towards the surface. The surface he couldn't reach.

" _I wonder if Nya's okay._ "


	38. THE END!

**OKAY, THIS IS THE ENDING! YAS! I decided to make it all in one giant post! I hope the timing is okay because, without it, it makes things seem Deus Ex Machina. I also hope that this is written as epically as I picture this going down in my head. I'd like to thank all of you for making it this far! Some of you, if you post reviews, I know have been with me from the beginning. And to all those people who made it through my irregular posting, wow I can't believe you had that much patience. It's been a long journey!**

 **Things this story could have improve on!**

 **-timing**

 **-not prolonged plot chapters or filler chapters**

 **-not so many plot twists**

 **-more character development**

 **-regular posting schedules**

 **-overall better use of vocabulary**

 **-not having fight scenes in 3rd person**

 **Anyways, I hope you enjoy! I am so excited because this allows so many opening for more stories! I'll see you around!**

* * *

The platform didn't fall. Which only meant that...

"Guys!" Zane called, "I don't think that-"

Morro was back in an instant. With a kick to the jaw, which made Lloyd's jaw make a clicking noise, Morro had punted him off the platform. Lloyd didn't even have time to scream as he flew off. In a second he was on the ground, eyes closed. Kai was peering over the edge, screaming his name. Screaming for him to get back up. Lloyd didn't get up. Blood started to seep onto the wooden planks below, dripping around his head. And then the platform was falling. It crashed into the side of a house before rolling into the ocean. All of them were on the ground again, except Cole and Morro.

"You said...I thought it would be me..." Cole said, fluttering down to the ground.

"It doesn't matter when or who," Morro snickered, "You're all going to die eventually. All by my hand."

Zane pushed himself off the ground, free from the magnets pull. A little banged up but he was okay. He rushed over to Lloyd, cradling his limp body in his hands. Somewhere, a soggy Kai and his energy dragon pulled themselves out of the water, coughing, his brown spiky hair how plastered against the sides of his face. He didn't waste a second as he made his way over to Lloyd's side where Zane was already running a scan. Kai gave him a sad look.

"He...needs severe medical attention." Zane admitted, "The worse is he's brain dead. The best is that he just cracked his skull."

The town of Stiix shivered under the weight of the emerging Preeminent, shaking like Kai's legs. They both threatened to give out, only held together by the how much other's depended on them to stay up.

"I'll take him," Kai said.

"You need an energy dragon to get back to the Bounty," Zane acknowledged.

"I've got one," Kai said, "What do you know. I guess traumatic events are the only way to get your powers back."

He sent Zane a sad smile before taking off on the back of his energy dragon, Lloyd leaning against his back, making his red gi even redder.

Cole landed next to Zane, still in complete shock. The Preeminent emerged, screeching and squealing noises that no human vocal cords could ever make. Ghosts poured out of its mouth, reborn. Cole and Zane watched their world go under a swarm of ghosts.

* * *

Nya pushed hard on Jay's chest, performing CPR.

"Come on, Jay," Nya growled under her breath.

He didn't start breathing on his own. She knew that it wasn't going to happen. Water had already seeped its way into his lungs and was drowning him from the inside out. She had taken him out of the water and put in on dry land and he was still drowning.

"I hate water!" She screamed, tears dripping down onto Jay, "It's so terrible! One second it's my friend, the next it's trying to drown us all! I just can't get it! I was happy being Samurai X. I was happy being a samurai! Now I have to be a ninja. I never asked for this. I never asked for any of this!"

The waves of the ocean grew choppy and harsh. It licked hungrily at the board of Stiix. Rising with each swell.

"I'm so sorry, Jay. I can't help you. I'm trying too hard and not enough at the same time." Nya sobbed.

The clouds moved in before pouring open, bombarding the ghosts below with water. They shrieked and dissolved coating the ground with goopy mush. The Preeminent shrieked its disapproval but didn't stop spewing ghosts everywhere.

Jay's eyes opened and he practically started clawing at his chest. He coughed and choked and sputtered but the water stayed in his lungs.

"I'm so sorry Jay. I can't. I'm trying so hard. And I just can't. You're going to die and it's all my fault." Nya sobbed as the rain came down harder.

"It's okay," Jay gurgled breathlessly, "It's okay."

His hand reached out and touched her arm gently.

"But if I had just-"

"No, no just's. Nobody's perfect." Jay coughed, "Samurai X couldn't have done anything here either. The water ninja did her best too. In the end, it's my fault. I decided to go."

"I'm the water ninja. I should be able to control water. I should be able to control this." Nya gestured to everything happening around her, "But I just can't. I'm not trying hard enough."

* * *

The sky decided to open up as clouds abnormally swarmed in. Ghosts started to disappear as the water dripped slowly and steadily down, more and more coming down every second.

Cole shrieked and bolted for cover as Morro, once again, dissolved into a puddle of mush.

Cole knew what was going to happen next. He'd already seen it in the ice caves of the future. This was it. He was going to dissolve. And didn't have any Preeminent to poof him back into the world again. He'd be gone forever.

He could feel the single drop of water the hit the middle of his stomach as he was just about to get to shelter. It was one small drop. Maybe it wouldn't do anything since it was so small?

Wrong, Cole could feel himself melting. And it was slow. It felt as if someone had taken a sword to his back and was twisting it around, slowly carving every centimeter through him as the hole started to expand. Cole dropped to the ground and curled up, his ghostly green turning more and more a sickly white. He gritted his teeth, biting down on them hard. Goopy green started to drip all around him. His hands balled into tight fists, his nails would have been digging into his skin if he had any. Dying was so painful, why couldn't it be quicker?

He gasped, uncurling and rolling onto his other side before curling back up again. It did nothing to help his situation. He wished that someone would just pour a bucket of water over him, get this over with, the slow progression of the water melting him was agony. Cole wasn't much of a screamer, but he could hear his voice hissing with pain, the cracking sounds of pain in the hollow high pitched keening scream that he was making.

Zane entered the room, having found Cole. His shocked gaze was quickly swept over by a calculating, almost cold expression. He was analyzing what was best for this situation. His expression changed again, one of both sympathy and empathy. Zane raised his hand, palm facing Cole. And then Cole couldn't feel anything.

* * *

Jay had stopped trying to breathe a long time ago. When he did he could feel the swishing of the water in his lungs as tried to breathe in. Instead, he focused on trying not to black out. That and trying to comfort Nya.

"Nya, you've got to trust yourself." Jay murmured, "You're too worried about being the Samurai or the water ninja. But in the end, you're just Nya. You've gotta let go and take a step back. Find yourself in the moment. You're getting lost in the moment and your powers are only responding to your emotions right now. And to take a step back. For just one tiny moment. To let go and readjust your grip. Just for a second. Letting go doesn't mean you don't care."

Jay took a wheezing breath, "You're trying too hard. You're tripping over yourself now. Just relax."

"How can you tell me that when you're dying? I need to try harder! I'm not trying hard enough!" Nya said, "How can I not care about you or this forsaken world!"

"I love you," Jay whispered.

"What?" Nya asked.

She didn't get a response.

"Let go? I can't let go." Nya said, "Jay? Jay?!"

" _Just trust yourself. In the end, you're just Nya. Let go and readjust your grip. Just for a second...Trust Jay."_

Nya took a deep breath. She closed her eyes and tried to block out the sounds of ghost's wails and the Preeminent's unearthly sounds. Instead, listen to Jay's words again in his head.

" _I'm Nya. I'm the Samurai X. But I am also the Water Ninja. And I can do this. Let go; you don't drown by falling into water. You drown by staying down there."_

Nya's eyes started to glow. She put her hands on Jay's chest. Jay started to cough before leaning over and puking about a gallon of water.

The rain faded and the ocean's choppy waves started to build into one big wave. Nya grabbed Jay and hoisted him over her shoulder. She wandered into the area that once was Ronin's pawn shop and grabbed the Realm Crystal, now discarded after its use. Summoning her dragon, she took off into the air. The wave hit the town of Stiix.

* * *

Misako barely had time to steer the Bounty out of the tsunami's radius. It clipped the helm of the ship almost tipping the whole thing over. Ear piercing shrieks came from what was left of the town of Stiix as the Preeminent dissolved and ghost after ghost disappeared. Misako felt as if her ears were about to bleed out. Maybe they already were.

Large whooshing sounds could be heard as Nya's dragon landed on the Bounty. She gently lowered Jay onto the deck, where he lay, heaving and gasping.

"Anybody left in the town?" She asked, turning to Sensei Wu.

"Nope, all the civilians are on this ship." Sensei Wu replied, "Everyone is accounted for."

Nya raised her hands up, eyes still glowing a powerful blue. A swell of waves came up around the sides of Stiix, climbing over the boards until the whole town looked like a bubble of water. Nya pulled her hands down and the bubble sunk, pulling the whole town under.

Jay made a peeping noise of surprise, wondering if that was a little too far.

"Now there will be no ghosts left," Nya said.

Kai winced behind her, hoping she didn't forget about Cole or Zane for that matter too.

The glowing in her eyes were starting to fade as her full potential started to slip from her grasp.

"Wait!" Zane called, skating along the water, turning it to ice underneath him.

He was pushing a block of ice and coming at them with unexpected speed. With a flick of his wrist and an instant ramp, both Zane and his block of ice landed on the Bounty's deck.

"What's with-" Kai said, inspecting his ice block.

Frozen in it, Cole was still curled up, his expression of pure pain still on his face.

"Can't you extract the water out of him?" Zane asked.

"Similar to what I did with Jay? I can try," Nya said.

The group crowded around the ice block, waiting for Zane to melt it.

"Wait, somebody get a bucket of water first," Zane said.

"Why?" Kai asked, already knowing the answer.

"Because...because if this doesn't work I'm going to-" Zane said, trailing off.

Sensei Wu silently nodded and brought a bucket of water to his side.

Zane's ice exploded into a million snowflakes and Cole gasped back to life.

"OWWWW!" Cole howled, curling in tighter around himself.

Nya placed a hand on Cole's stomach, before pulling out a tiny ball of water. She threw it back into the ocean as Cole lay there gasping.

"He's still melting," Kai commented, looking at Zane.

"Are you in pain?" Zane asked carefully.

Cole uncurled slightly, huffing and puffing, "No, not anymore."

For so much pain to be gone so suddenly, he felt as if it was going to all come back. He studied his stomach, sticking his hand straight through the new hole.

"Great, I was hoping that ice wall thing wasn't going to come true." He sighed, closing his eyes, "I need a moment."

The Bounty was quiet for a moment as they allowed Cole to take in everything that just happened. His breathing steadied as he tried to get himself to relax.

"So you're okay?" Nya asked, glow now completely faded from her eyes, unable to stop the question.

"I think so," Cole huffed, unfolding so he was laying completely on his back.

"How's Lloyd," Zane turned to Kai.

"Umm," Kai said, "We think he just cracked his skull. It wasn't too bad actually. I don't it completely cracked."

The Bounty shuffled about in their thoughts. Before Nya silently pushed the Realm Crystal into Sensei Wu's hands.

"I'm sorry about Morro," She told him.

"I think..." Sensei Wu started, "Morro needed to let go. He was too bent on trying to be a part of this world even though he left it. I just wish that we could have done something to help him. I should have been a better teacher. I should have influenced him more positively."

Sensei Wu's eyes glanced around the air, maybe almost hopeful to see Morro float out unscathed.

"I just wish I could have had a chance to right this wrong, that I could have fixed this." Sensei Wu sighed.

"I'm sorry Sensei. Things don't always work out like we wish them to. All we can do is make the most of this situation." Zane said, patting his shoulder comfortingly.

"No kidding!" Cole exclaimed, putting his arm through the hole to emphasize his point.

"I wonder how Ninjago is going to react to this 'new exciting news'." Kai wondered aloud.

"All I know is that there is going to be a 'hole' lot of to cover." Jay laughed.

The crew of the Bounty laughed quietly to Jay's pun, before sitting in a quiet silence.

* * *

 **(1 month later)**

"KAI! Get out of the way!"

Kai stuck out his tongue childishly but didn't move an inch.

"I can't see!" Lloyd wailed, spamming a bunch of buttons.

He had a band of white bandages around his head, causing his blond hair to stick up, looking a little bit like Zane's hedge. Except for that fact that it drooped over and fell in messy tufts around his head.

"Hah!" Jay exclaimed overtaking Lloyd's character.

"No!" Lloyd groaned.

Jay high-fived Kai, this time with his newly, de-casted right hand.

"I win championships!" Jay cheered.

"Hey," Kai shrugged, "Hearing Jay gloating about his winnings in five times less painful when it's you."

"Not true," Lloyd sighed, socking Kai.

Zane shook his head, sighing, "Hey, at least it isn't Kai."

"TRUE!" Lloyd and Jay both cheered.

"I don't know." Cole argued, shifting his position on the couch, "Zane's pretty annoying."

"What?!" Zane exclaimed, giving him a kicked puppy expression.

"You don't say anything but you've got that look on your face. You don't need to say anything for it to be 5 times more annoying than Kai, Lloyd, and Jay altogether." Cole laughed.

Zane leaped over the back of the couch, landing next to Cole. Laughing, Kai, Jay, and Lloyd joined them, wrapping their arms around each other's shoulders.

" _I've seen this before,_ " Zane thought. His memory flashed back to the ice caves. He'd seen this in the future telling walls.

"How long do you think we have till the next catastrophe strikes," Kai asked, interrupting Zane's train of thought.

"Averaging." Zane said, "Hmm, we usually have a quarter of a year before the next catastrophe. Not including basic crimes."

"Great," Jay sighed, propping his leg up on the coffee table in front of him and letting himself sink further into the couch, "Let's make the most of it."

"Agreed," Lloyd said.


End file.
